The Minister of Transport Patrice Vergriete formalized the launch of a “Rail Pass” experiment for the summer of 2024. For whom? Where can we travel? How to get it ? All the answers to your questions.
The Rail Pass will make its grand debut this summer. After intense negotiations between the Minister of Transport, Patrice Vergriete and reluctant regional presidents such as Xavier Bertrand (Hauts-de-France) or Laurent Wauquiez (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), all parties reached a consensus. Emmanuel Macron was committed to this, the experimentation of the system will therefore be deployed this summer, but will be likely to undergo several adjustments in the future. “The idea is perhaps to go further in the long term” specifies the minister.
A system for those under 27 intended to evolve
Dear to the Head of State, the Rail Pass will allow young people under 27 to travel unlimited with TER and Intercités throughout France. Or around 700,000 people according to SNCF estimates. However, this monthly package does not concern TGV InOui, OUIGO Classic or High Speed Trains, nor Eurostars. His price ? 49 euros per month.
Subscriptions for the Rail Pass will be open from “the beginning of June. There will necessarily be a website, it will perhaps be on the SNCF website directly” explains Patrice Vergriete. The experimental phase is planned for July and August 2024. According to Le Parisien, the SNCF and the ministry do not yet know whether it will be necessary to reserve a ticket to ensure a place on a train. A meeting must take place this Friday, April 5 between the two parties to clarify the terms of sale.
At the same time, the Minister of Transport Patrice Vergriete did not exclude that this subscription could, in the future, allow travel beyond French borders. “Yesterday, I met my German counterpart, we are considering a Franco-German rail pass by 2025 to travel with the same subscription of 49 euros in France and Germany” he announced. “We start from a base and we see how to improve the system little by little,” he concludes.
The Île-de-France region is not part of the project
The Île-de-France region is the only one excluded from the project. A decision which is “penalizing” for young people from neighboring regions for Xavier Bertrand. However, the government is considering an expansion of the Rail Pass from 2025 in Île-de-France. For regional councilor Pierre-Jean Baty, the special treatment reserved for Île-de-France would concern the organization of transport in the region: “Ile-de-France does not have TER, but RER and transiliens. These are transports used for daily journeys, not for long distances or going on weekends,” explains the centrist elected official in Libération.
An argument which does not hold for the ecologist Jean-Baptiste Pegeon, still in the columns of Libération: “The TER in Ile-de-France are called transiliens, but that changes nothing. Even if they manage the transit of “mass, it’s basically the same thing: long-distance regional transport. Young Ile-de-France residents will have neither access to the Olympics, nor access to transport in general, they are just offered to be volunteers” he regrets. On the cost side, the government has already affirmed last March that the State would cover most of the 15 million euros necessary for the implementation of the Rail Pass. Concerning revenues, 85% will go to local authorities, the rest to the State.