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Paris Public Transportation

Public transportation system of Paris is well planned and well maintained (at least most of the time). Paris and its suburbs are divided into 6 zones, while zone 1 being in the centre of Paris and zone 6 being the furthest away from the city.

The metro map provided by RATP.

To visit the RATP (The Parisian Public Transportation Authority) web site click here.
For the English version click here.

The cost of travelling is calculated in a simple manner. The cost depends on the number of zones that you cross while travelling. As an example, the cost of you travelling within zone 1 and zone2 is less than the cost of you travelling from zone 1 to zone 5. The chances of tourists getting further than zone 5 is very rare, unless they are in Paris for more than tourism.

The public transportation system of Paris consists of metros, buses, trams, RERs, trains, night buses and rental bicycle system called Velib. The combination of these mediums can get to you to any place that you wish in a very short time. Having the knowledge of the system is of importance if you are to profit from this excellent system

You can buy tickets at any of the metro stations, train stations or any other authorized outlet. You can also buy tickets when you aboard a bus or a night bus. If you buy a ticket from the driver of the bus, you will not be able to use that ticket in any other place. It means that you will only be able to use that for that particular bus ride. So, it’s better to avoid having to buy the tickets on board of a bus.

You don’t have to spend tickets every time you change your mode of transportation or different lines of the same mode. There are few combinations where you could use the same ticket. As an example with the ticket you buy to go to Disney Land from Paris, you will be able to use a metro and the RER A or use multiple metros and/or multiple RERs of your choice. But of course it has a validity period of one and half hours (90 minutes).

Here are some of the possible combinations!

• Among any number of metro lines
• From metro lines and finally RER lines
• Among RER lines
• Among bus lines
• From bus lines to tram lines
• Among tram lines

But you can't use the same ticket for

• Round trips
• From metro lines to bus lines
• From RER lines to bus lines

The transportation system usually comes to life around 05:30. It doesn’t rest until 01:00 of the other day. So, normally Parisian transportation system is active for about 20 hours each day. This gets better. On weekends (Friday and Saturday evenings), the calling off time is 02:00 in the morning of the other day.

It doesn’t mean that Paris stops dead right after 01:00 or 02:00 every day. Night buses are the saviours if you want still to be roaming around the Paris. Unless it’s the summer, you would not find people in roads at those hours. Of course, avenue champs elysees, the red district and the night clubs spread around Paris would argue otherwise.

Provided that you need to be mobile during those odd hours, you could also consult the Parisian Taxis, which is also very reliable and consistent given that the commuters are aware of the Parisian Taxi system.

The French are very strict when it comes to the breaking of the laws. Travelling without a valid ticket is against the law. So, be careful if you do that, cause if you get caught, it can be guaranteed that no brilliant story would make them let you free. If you can take in the humiliation of being caught as well as have enough money to pay the fine (which would be around 38€ maximum) then it is advised to do so. But if you don’t have the money to pay the fine, it is better advised for you to travel in the legitimate way. Of course, five minutes plus to the period of validity will not make it a great error compared to not buying tickets at all. You would be able to find ways of bending rules when you know what the rules are.