“In 2024, smartphone ticketing will be entirely available on iPhone,” launched Valérie Pécresse, president of the region and Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), during the wishes of the public transport organizing authority Ile-de-France residents this Tuesday evening. A breakthrough that has been awaited for several years, because although it has been possible for several years to recharge and validate your Navigo pass directly with an Android smartphone, this is still not possible with an Apple brand model. This will then be “a first in Europe”, welcomed the president (LR) of the Île-de-France region, specifying that “before the end of the first semester, we will be able to travel on our network with iPhones”.
“The use of the smartphone, including discharged, to carry your Navigo pass or to travel directly, is a real revolution, and it is the future,” she continued, explaining that “the results” were “ already there”. The proof according to her? The fact that 20% of monthly Navigos are now sold on smartphones, or 320,000 packages. “And it’s an increase of 50% compared to last year,” she rejoiced, convinced that “at this rate, Ile-de-France residents will soon all be converted to smartphones.” “We will be the first city in Europe and the largest network in the world to be present in the “wallet” tab,” said Laurent Probst, the general director of IDFM, at the end of July.
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“The other revolution that you are all waiting for is to see Navigo Liberté, that is to say the post-payment of tickets based on use, extended to trains and RERs. This will be the case on January 1, 2025,” Valérie Pécresse said on Tuesday, while the Liberté card is already available on the metro and on all trams and buses in the inner and outer suburbs.
New features that go hand in hand with the dematerialization of metro tickets. Started in mid-October 2021, with the end of the sale of cardboard ticket books, this dynamic should make it possible to reduce queues and put an end to the production of non-reusable tickets, while 28 million tickets in cardboard were still sold in booklets in 2019. Since the development of the various applications developed by RATP and IDFM to directly pay for tickets or recharge your Navigo Easy and Navigo Liberté pass, “only 29% of tickets were still sold in magnetic books” , welcomes the authority.
