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Good news: once again you can buy a bus ticket in Paris from the driver

The RATP has announced that it has resumed (as of today) the physical sale of tickets in cash from the bus driver.

Of course you might not want to rely on this for all your bus ticket needs, as the tickets cost €2 when bought from the driver versus €1.90 when bought from a vending machine or on a Navigo Easy card (or a bit less, if you use your Easy to buy a carnet of 10 tickets).

Nevertheless, it is a handy thing in case of need - I remember last summer being over at the Champs de Mars and running into two visiting families who had planned to buy tickets directly from the bus driver - but the company had suspended that possibility due to Covid restrictions.

So now, if you want to catch a bus and don't have a ticket and aren't near an RATP ticket machine, you have an option if you have a couple of euros on you.

(Yes you can buy one via SMS if you have a French cell phone number, but I figure that doesn't apply to too many people here.)

Posted by
2707 posts

Just curious, but as I have not seen this information anywhere, where did you find this Kim? Indeed, some buses have had hard plastic dividers installed, protecting the driver from any contact with passengers. This would make purchasing anything from the driver difficult.

Posted by
10213 posts

Le Figaro reported it just a few hours ago. Tbe article discussed how RATP had wanted to put this back in place quite a while ago, but the bus drivers had protested.

Île-de-France : l'achat de tickets à bord des bus RATP de nouveau possible à partir de ce lundi
https://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/ile-de-france-l-achat-de-tickets-a-bord-des-bus-ratp-de-nouveau-possible-a-partir-de-ce-lundi-20220704?utm_source=app&utm_medium=sms&utm_campaign=fr.playsoft.lefigarov3

Posted by
2707 posts

Thanks Kim. It looks as though the plexiglass protecting the driver will be removed. One assumes that the drivers themselves are not overjoyed with this decision.

Posted by
3562 posts

This happened to us, we were told by our guidebook (ahem, Mr. Rick Steves), that we could buy a bus ticket directly. When we tried, we were told we could not. It was kinda frustrating because we then had a long walk on tired feet.

Posted by
14980 posts

Thanks for this information....another reason for having coins handy. I normally have several paper Metro/bus tickets on me anyway but this is useful information in case of being caught empty.

Posted by
8560 posts

In the past these tickets could not be used for transfer; do we know if that is still the case?

Posted by
2707 posts

The ticket d'accès à bord, whether it is purchase by SMS or from the driver, is only valid for the current ride. No transfer is possible. Cost is 2€.

Posted by
4853 posts

don't blame a guidebook for info that has changed since it was published, that's called reality. Travel is the art of the improv.