This year in France, the topic of public transport distribution has been raised at least twice, at top political levels :
- First, in February, the French Ministry of transports organized a hackathon aiming to imagine a future national universal public transport ticket (Metrolys took part at this event). At the end of the event, Clément Beaune, the French transport Minister, announced that this universal ticket would be
launched by 2025. The ambition is to make public transport more simple for all, to replace the current multi tickets and complex situation, depending on the location and used operators. - Then, in September, Emmanuel Macron, President of France, shared his will to create a new national “Rail Pass” enabling people to travel on any regional train, anywhere in France, for a priced caped at 49€. This idea is inspired by the German Deutschlandticket, launched in May 2023, that addresses not only regional trains but also also urban public transport networks. Mr Beaune confirmed that this pass would be launched before summer 2024.
Ambitions are positive since, in both cases, this is about easing the access to public transport and, thus, reduce usage of carbon emitting transportation means.
Here, we will not challenge the relevance of these two projects. Several professionals of our industry already did so and we agree on several of the points they make.
However, we question the efficiency of the approach since it does not seem to be able to tackle the basic problem of the distribution of mobility in France. Here we refer to the lack of integration of the governance among the regional and local Public Transport Authorities (PTA).
This deficiency is a major obstacle to the creation of a real universal ticket, usable everywhere, by anyone. And this deficiency also prevents from extending the scope of the “Rail Pass” to urban public transport. And we do not even talk about the fact that nothing is possible without the adhesion of the French regional administrations, that fund the passenger rail regional service.
In Austria, stakeholders patiently made the job
During our recent visit in Austria, we met several local public transport stakeholders and we learned why and how it is possible to buy, with a purchase, a ticket that gives access to public transport means (trains, metro, regional buses, trams) throughout the whole country, ie more than 600km from east to west. This purchase can be done at a train station, from a ticket machine or a mobile application (MaaS).
To echo the « Rail Pass” ambitioned by Mr Macron, let’s not forget that it is in Austria that, in 2021, two years before the Deutschlandticket, the KlimaTicket was created: for 91 Euros per month, with a card, it is 
possible to travel on any public transport means, in the whole country, almost with no exception.
During our conversation with VOR (« Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region”), the Austria largest Public Transportation Association, we understood that this is allowed by two levels of integration:
- At the local level (Länder), the transport associations organize and coordinate the distribution of ticket, making mobility smooth and easy within their territories
- At the national level, the company OneMobility integrates fares of each regional association within the “Ticketshop”, which enables to sell tickets that are usable within the whole country, with all public transport types
The first public transport associations were created in Austria at the beginning of the 90’ and, stepby step, they contributed to the building of this efficient distribution system that, today, ensures an easy access to public transport. A long and deep work has been done by all stakeholders that include Länder, cities, transport associations and mobility operators so that all travelers can get information, buy the right ticket and move seamlessly throughout the whole country.
Today, in France, it seems to us that this serious topic is taken the other way round: first communications and then technical solutions are investigated for an implementation as soon as possible…
However, we are convinced that the right approach would consist in, first, consult stakeholders, especially the regions, implement clever and integrated governance frameworks and then only, design and implement clever solutions that would serve all travelers. This approach is, obviously, less appealing in terms of political communication, but we would all benefit from its efficiency.
Do not hesitate to contact us, we would be happy to discuss more in details on this topic.