The State and the Île-de-France region have just ratified their agreement this Tuesday on the financing of public transport in the Ile-de-France region. A text deemed “historic” which should allow a moderation of price increases on January 1, at a level between 86.30 and 86.60 euros (depending on inflation), as Le Figaro announced this weekend. For this, all parties – employers, local authorities, tourists and users – will pay more to finance public transport in Île-de-France.
This agreement “has only one compass and one direction: the users”, launched the Minister Delegate in charge of Transport, Clément Beaune, this Wednesday, explaining that “without this agreement”, Île-de-France Mobilités – the public transport organizing authority in the region chaired by Valérie Pécresse – “should have made unsustainable price increases”. “We don’t want that,” he added when signing a “historic agreement” with the head of the region on transport financing.
He is pleased to have concluded an agreement which allows “stability”, “serenity” and “visibility” until the start of the 2030 decade. A text which must above all, according to him, make it possible “not to relive a discussion every year » between the state and the region to find out “who pays what”, “how much is the check”, “what is the tax”. “We want attractive prices but also quality transport,” he further affirmed, welcoming a “fair agreement” in which “everyone makes an effort in proportion to these capacities”.
A feeling shared by Valérie Pécresse – president of the region and of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) – who is delighted to have signed this protocol which “lays the first stage of sustainable financing” of transport and in particular of Grand Paris Express “over the next decade 2023 to 2031”, thus allowing “moderation of fare increases” for users. As planned, this memorandum of understanding provides for an increase in the mobility payment, which will concern Parisian and inner-city businesses as well as an increase in the tourist tax. “For the first time, tourists will be called upon to contribute,” rejoiced Valérie Pécresse, who evokes a gain of “200 million euros from 2024”. Thus, taxes would increase from 5 to 15 euros in a Parisian palace, or from 1.90 euros to 5.70 euros in a three-star hotel.
“The State will also halve the fee that IDFM owes to the Société du Grand Paris” as part of the construction of the Grand Paris Express, a supermetro already under construction in the region. A “savings of 140 million by 2031” according to the agreement, which provides for a “review clause” in 2027, deemed “essential to verify that all the hypotheses” above “have been respected”. In addition, “communities will also be involved”, warns Valérie Pécresse, who is trying to “obtain their agreement” to increase their contribution to the level of inflation 2% “over 5 years”, between 2023 and 2028, then just the height of inflation between 2028 and 2031. An effort which would show, according to the president, that the departments as well as the city of Paris “are truly exemplary”. An effort in which the region will participate, which promises to provide an additional 460 million euros for transport between 2024 and 2028.
So much new funding which should allow “real price moderation for users”. That is an increase of around 2.20 euros in the monthly Navigo pass, which would thus increase to 86.60 euros on January 1, 2024. Far from the painful increase already experienced by users on January 1, who had seen the price of their Navigo monthly pass increase by 12%, from 75.20 to 84.10 euros. Nothing official yet, as the prices for next year will not be definitively set until December, when IDFM’s 2024 budget is voted on.
An “ecological and social victory for Île-de-France” for Valérie Pécresse, who insisted that the fact that via this agreement, “it is Île-de-France which pays for Île-de-France France”. “There is no subsidy from the state budget, no funding from non-Île-de-France taxpayers,” she assured, of the 36 billion euros invested in this extremely important infrastructure. “I know that some are afraid, including in Parliament, that the State and French taxpayers will be called upon to finance this infrastructure, but that is false,” she insisted. With this “fair effort shared between all funders”, it is only the region’s businesses, users, tourists and communities who are at work.
On the side of political opposition, the Presidential Majority group in the Île-de-France regional council believes that “the increase in the Navigo pass, even limited, will represent an effort for Ile-de-France residents in this period of inflation and must therefore translate through an improvement in the service provided. The communist group, for its part, criticized the rise in prices for users and “keeps on the table its concrete proposals to freeze prices and strengthen IDFM’s revenues”.