Free Transit for Riders Under 18? In Paris, It’s Here.

Starting this month, Parisians under the age of 18 can travel on the city’s public transit network free of charge. Timed to coincide with the return to schools after France’s summer break, a new policy from Paris City Hall will see all young people who apply reimbursed for the cost of an annual pass “within five to six weeks,” with some restrictions. It still requires applicants to pay some money upfront for their ticket and benefits only young people living within the 2.2 million resident City of Paris itself. The plan nonetheless represents another step in an ongoing campaign to make Paris’s public transit cheaper and more accessible — a process that might end up eventually with the city offering a fully free network.

These steps started in June 2018, when transit authority RATP made city travel free for those 65 and up, bringing France’s capital into line with other countries, such as the U.K., that grant free transit access to older people. In September 2019, children under 11 and all minors with disabilities were granted free travel, and middle- and high-school-aged children were given a 75% discount. This year, these changes have also rippled out into the suburbs. On Sept. 1, the larger Île-de-France region that covers Greater Paris also introduced an almost-free annual pass for children between 4 and 11 years old, costing just 24 euros a year.