🚇 The Guide to Public Transportation in Paris: Metro, RER, Bus, etc

Paris has one of the biggest public transportation systems in the world with the metro, commuter rail, bus, and tramway. However, navigating it can be daunting for those new to the city. In this article, we will cover different topics such as the different modes of transportation available, the purchase of tickets/passes, and safety. Let’s go!

🚇 The Different Modes of Transportation

The Paris region’s public transportation is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to travel around Paris. Here are the different modes of transportation you can find running on the network:

🎟️ Which Ticket/Pass to Buy

If you want to know quickly the ticket/pass to buy based on your needs, you can follow this guide:

✅ Validation

When using the Paris public transportation, you will need to validate your ticket/travel card in these validator machines:

💸 Fines

It can be quite expensive to jump the turnstiles in Paris!

If you get caught like President Chirac or forget to validate your ticket/pass, you can have one of the following fines:

Non-validation of your travel card with a valid day/weekly/monthly/annual pass inside a tramway or a bus	5€
Non-validation of your paper ticket/travel card in the Metro or RER	35€
Inside the Paris public transportation network without a valid paper ticket/travel card	50€
Inside the Paris public transportation Network with a paper ticket/travel card belonging to someone else	50€
Spotted entering illegally inside the Paris public transportation Network	60€

👮‍♂️ Safety

When using Paris public transportation, you will need to be careful with your personal belongings (smartphone, wallet, bag, luggage, etc) which could attract thieves, pickpockets, and so on. I will describe you few situations where you will need to be careful:

1. 🛍️ Touristic/shopping areas (Eiffel Tower, Opera, Notre-Dame, Sacré-Coeur) where can be crowded, and the thieves can take advantage of these distractions, inside the metro as well as in the metro platform.
2. 🚇 In the metro, the thieves can wait the last seconds before the metro doors close, to rip you off your smartphone and run away.
3. 🚉 In the metro platform or inside the metro, thieves could open your bag and steal the content inside.
4. 🌘 In the Noctilien (night bus), it can be unsafe (for women especially) because of the drunk people, weird people, or pickpockets.
5. ✈️ When you come from CDG Airport, and you decide to take the to go to Paris, be careful with your luggage because thieves could steal it in the last seconds before the door close. I would advise you to stay close to your luggage. If you take a direct train to Paris, you should not have issues. If you are afraid of this situation, it is maybe better to take the to go to Paris: it is more expensive and takes longer than the but it is a direct bus to Paris, so you will have less chance of seeing a thief.

To summarize: be careful and watch out 👀.

📱 The Essential Mobile Applications

Here is a selection of the best mobile applications to navigate through the complexity of Paris public transportation:

Conclusion

Paris has a widespread public transportation network, with the metro, bus, tramway, RER, and train, with convenient fares.

To navigate through all the complexity of the Paris public transportation network, Google Maps, Citymapper, and Bonjour RATP will be your lifesavers.

To know more about how to get around Paris with another mode of transportation, you can check this article: