The t+ carnets which can be purchased ahead of time to give convenience and some discounts for Paris transport have a high rate of demagnetization. This means ticket discounts are wiped out and embarrassing situations results. For the Metro, you can go to an attendant. For a bus, where people are pushing on behind you, the situation is much difficult.
There seems to be a move to use a card that you can buy and load / top off but this reduces the discounts.
This has always been the case with metro tickets; it has become a bit more frequent now that we carry smartphones and credit cards on us at all times. The move to top-up cards is long overdue!
The Navigo Easy Pass now makes paper tickets obsolete. See this thread from last month:
The Navigo Easy Pass does not reduce discounts as the OP says.
The Navigo Easy card allows you to load tickets t+, up to 30 at one time, but the pricing is the same as paper tickets.
I probably use 3 to 4 dozen tickets t+ per year and rarely find demagnetized tickets. It can occur, but it´s never a problem at a métro/RER station as the tickets are quickly replaced by staff. However, you are right about the bus as, in the event of a problem, the driver cannot check tickets nor replace demagnetized ticket.
the new Easy does not reduce the discount; where did you get that idea? You loud tickets on it not money.
It has its limitations; right now it doesn't load RER tickets for example.
Tickets demagnetize easily if you have a magnetic clasp on pocket or purse or other source of magnet -- not so much if you don't. On a bus if your tickets were all demagnetized, you would have to buy one from the driver.
You have to buy the card so that cost is amortized across each ride you load onto the card, effectively reducing the discount. It is convenient to have something to avoid digging for change but we need to know the true cost.
People have magnetic sources these days. The photo chips for digital cameras don’t demagnetize and neither do credit cards. The Navigo cards need to be equally robust.
The Navigo Easy card costs a one-time €2.
Amortize it?? Okayyy... 😂
You get the same discount using a Navigo Easy as you do when buying a carnet.
OP, what is the point of your thread?
From what I can tell, the point of the thread appears to be general-purpose criticism of the Paris transit fare payment methods: t+ tickets are to be criticized because they de-magnetize, the Navigo Easy cards are to be criticized because they cost €2.
For what it's worth I fully support a nominal cost for transit fare cards, particularly fare cards like the Navigo Easy that can be reused. I live somewhere (New York City) where the local fare payment method, the MetroCard, was free for a long time. (Obviously the transit fare wasn't free, but the card itself didn't cost anything aside from the money you put on it). It felt like there were scattered MetroCards littered everywhere, because people treated those cards exactly as you would expect something free -- once the value was used up, no point being careful about keeping the card because it cost nothing to buy a new one.
Andrew, i guess that’s as good a guess as any what the point of this thread is.
Good point about Metro cards littered everywhere when they’re free.
I still have lots of paper tickets to use up. My only concern with the new system was ease in purchasing and topping up cards for those of us who can't get into the metro and/or do not have (or even want) smart phones. On the RATP page mention of extending points of sale by fall of 2019 is discussed, Yay!!! I for one am glad to exchange paper for a card. Does a 2E charge prorated over the life of a card break one's bank?
In my experience, bus drivers have been very understanding about messed up tickets.
The point is a typical tourist might be in Paris 2 or 3 days and visit 2 or 3 sights per day. That itinerary might use 1 carnet’s worth of tickets. The current 20% discount become 10% with the Navigo card cost. For this higher cost, the Navigo card better work - no excuses about mobile phones being too close.
For someone who is in Paris longer, then, yes the Navigo makes more and more sense.
Or for someone who is in Paris more frequently -- we got Navigo Decouverte cards on a trip several years ago and just keep them with our passports and Euros for other trips. Plan to do that with the Navigo Easy cards. (For me, if I am on the European continent then a visit to Paris is mandatory.)
