The 4 million regular metro users all have their own little habits.
But they can sometimes harm them.
This is the bitter observation made, to her cost, by Inès, 23 years old, a communications student in Paris.
Tuesday, she takes metro line 14 then the RER D to return home to Savigny-le-Temple (Seine-et-Marne).
Like every day.
RATP controllers cut off his journey when he changes.
“I thought they were checking transport tickets, but obviously not just that…” she chokes.
If she used her Navigo pass correctly, she is fined for… taking stairs in the wrong direction.
“Until last month, they were not yet banned,” she assures.
I always get on the back of the 14 to have the quickest change because there aren't many RER Ds and I don't want to miss it,” explains the young woman to Le Parisien.
The controllers don't want to hear anything and issue him a fine of 25 euros, as provided for in the regulations.
“There were about twenty of us who took the stairs in the direction of going up.
But they only had to arrest a couple of tourists and me.
It's absurd, it's not a narrow corridor where you can't see the end.
I was on my phone, I did not see the new signs installed on the ceiling warning of the ban on going up,” regrets Inès.
A forbidden meaning that is very little respected
A lack of leniency from agents of the public transport authority that she denounced on social networks.
A message relayed by more than 3,000 people, “liked” by 13,000 others and seen by three million users of X, formerly Twitter.
Hello @ClientsRATP I experienced a shameful fine last night at Gare de Lyon when leaving metro 14, checked and fined €25 for having taken a staircase in the "forbidden direction", a staircase which had been in one direction for a week? ?
Paying €84/month is not enough?
https://t.co/m77vfsyN0f pic.twitter.com/0bgdKJsHdU
— Inès (@sxnshaxniall) March 6, 2024
If customer service has already told her that she will not be able to contest this (justified) fine, which she was able to pay at the time of the check to avoid the increase, the young woman intends to go to mediation.
And she shouldn't be the last.
This Friday, dozens of passengers took the stairs each time the metro arrived.
Isabelle pauses before coming forward.
Her friend Emmanuelle doesn't even pay attention to the two large signs.
“It doesn't make sense, I didn't even notice them even though I pass by them every day.
I don't see why they did that.
In the event of a fine, I would not have paid and caused a scandal,” she smiles.
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“Especially since the people who come down take the two escalators on the side,” complains Georges, another regular caught red-handed.
“I would have negotiated too, it sucks to have done that, it’s the shortest route to reach the RER.
What I’ve been doing for years,” adds Christelle.
For its part, the RATP ensures that this measure dates back to December 1 and was accompanied by awareness raising by agents.
“Exits (from this station) are now exclusively via three new fixed and mechanical staircases in the center of the platform.”
A decision which should “make it possible to facilitate traffic on the platforms in anticipation of the extension of the 14 towards Orly and Pleyel and which will be able to accommodate nearly a million travelers per day”.