The RATP cardboard ticket books were to bid their final farewell in March 2022. But a global shortage affecting the supply of electronic chips is disrupting the program. The same shortage that affects several sectors, including the automobile, now impacts your Navigo Pass.
This postponement would be around six months, according to information reported by The Parisian. The total cessation of the sale of paper ticket books should therefore be postponed until September 2022. This leaves a little reprieve for fans of t + tickets to travel to Ile-de-France.
François Gauthier, the managing director of the company that manufactures the Navigo Pass, Paragon ID, confirmed to the Parisian that the deadlines have been lengthening since January 2021 to supply themselves with chips. “We have to confirm firm orders up to 24 months in advance,” he explains. However, nothing (yet) to worry users, he reassures. The main consequence of this is to slow down the dematerialization strategy launched by Ile-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), which must now better anticipate its stocks.
Cardboard makes resistance
If contactless media are deemed “safer and faster” by the RATP, it is also a good way to fight against the risk of demagnetizing your ticket by mistake or dropping it from your pocket inadvertently. Since October, occasional travelers wishing to purchase physical tickets have been encouraged to purchase dematerialized tickets on the Navigo Easy contactless card, or to opt for other formulas, such as the Navigo Liberté +.
Since complete dematerialization must be done in several stages, it is still possible to purchase cardboard transport tickets individually. However, it is not excluded that even cardboard will become a scarce commodity, in view of the soaring prices of cardboard and the raw materials to manufacture it.
There is an alternative: use your smartphone as a transport pass. To date, only owners of certain Samsung Galaxy models with at least Android 6.0 can store tickets directly on their phone. According to The Parisian, a new step should be taken in 2022 to buy tickets directly from your Android phone. This feature could presumably be available as of May.
Not to mention another solution that could one day make its appearance: payment at the terminals with your bank card. Discussions have started with the manager.one online bank, but the practical and technical modalities of this experiment have not yet been finalized, we were told a few months ago from Ile-de-France Mobilités.