Paris travel

Travellers to Paris this summer should be aware of the excellent RATP (Régie autonome des transports parisiens) English app according to our railways expert Andrew Sharp.

The opening screen shows a map with your location (current location, if you are in Paris), and asks where you are going – ‘home’, ‘work’ or somewhere else. These allow you to create ‘bookmarks’ for frequently visited locations.

You are given the choice of routes for your destination – and this includes a map to show the best walking route to the nearest bus stop or metro station, as well as the nearest bike-hire point. The main screen shows the fare, the journey time and the lines you need to take. If it necessitates a short walk, a bus alternative is shown.

You are then shown which lines you need, the destination of the train and the next few departures. At interchange points, you are shown which is the best part of the train to use (so I needed to change at Madelaine and was told that it was best to use the rear of the train). Walking time between trains was given.

The app showed how crowded the trains were likely to be (and you can report the crowding status of the train or bus you are on, so this is pretty much real time!). You were also shown the CO2 consumption by public transport (in my case, 28g) and by car (2kg) – and the amount of kcal burnt, presumably by the 17min walking time (at each end and at the interchange point).

Another feature is the system map, which you can explore: you can also access a note on engineering works affecting each line (the ‘Traffic’ tab). The explanation of what is going on and where, is only in French. You can set an alert to get notifications of disruption to regularly used lines.

Where a station or a platform is closed, information on alternatives is given. If you had a Navigo pass on your phone, you could buy a ticket.

Transport for London (TfL) has a similar but not so comprehensive offering, its one great disadvantage being the user is unable to plot the routing of his choice. See also AND FINALLY: Elizabeth Line confusion in last week’s BTN.  It seems there is a tunnel from Moorgate to Liverpool Street which makes the announcement correct.  If any reader has checked the signage, please report. BTN Editor-in-Chief

www.ratp.fr/en

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum