The
RER, Paris regional railway
will be most used by visitors for going to and from CDG and Orly airports
or Disneyland and Versailles.
There are five lines, simply numbered A to E. Unlike most city suburban
lines there are no city centre terminals, all lines except E, go straight
through Paris to a destination on the other side of the city.
In Paris city centre the key stations are Chatelet and Gare du Nord.
These are vast transport hubs, with metro
lines as well as RER lines interchanging.
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The
RER is run by RATP, who also run the Metro and city
centre buses.
As a result
train, metro and bus are tightly integrated, sharing ticketing systems.
If you are travelling within central Paris you can use a single ticket
which is also valid for Metro and buses.
Within
central Paris you can think of the RER as just another Metro line.
All trains are single class and non-smoking.
Trains will commonly run at 15-20 minute intervals and run from about
05:00 to around midnight.
There
are six zones on the RER, (see map). The zones radiate out from the
centre. Zones 1&2 are the central area where the Metro operates,
Versailles is in zone 4, CDG airport and Disneyland in Zone 5.
You can pick up a large public transport map from tourist offices,
buses on one side, metro and RER on the other. These are excellent
as they are overlaid on top of a road map, with all visitor attractions
marked clearly too.
To access a platform you need a ticket. This can obtained within the
station or from an automatic machine. Many of the machines are multi-lingual
and dispense travel passes as well as single tickets. The ticket machine
will ask you your departure and destination station.
You can use the Metro system if you need to interconnect RER lines,
or your destination or departure station can be a Metro station.
The automatic ticket barriers are simple to use, common with other
similar systems like the London Underground. You insert your ticket
into the machine, the machine will after validating your ticket return
the ticket and raise the barrier to allow you to pass. If you have
a travel pass, you have to insert this into the machine.
At most stations you will need to pass through the same barriers to
exit.
There are gangs of ticket inspectors operating in teams, their usual
tactic is to cover all exits from a platform and make everybody show
their ticket. If you're in Paris a few days its likely you'll be inspected
at least once.
For
most lines the first train is about 05:30 and the last well after
midnight.
Frequencies are very high, a few minutes between each train at most.
There is a strict non-smoking policy.
We would recommend that you examine the various travel
passes available. |
Paris
Single Ticket Fares (€)
July 2007 - June 2008 |
| 1
Ticket Metro, Bus or RER within Paris, Zones 1&2 |
1.50 |
| Carnet
of 10 tickets, as above for Adult |
11.10 |
| Carnet
of 10 tickets, Child (4 to 10 years old) |
5.55 |
| Travel
Passes |
See
Travel Pass Page |
If you are travelling outside Zone 1, e.g. from the airport or to
Disneyland you will have to purchase a ticket based on the zones you
are travelling between.
You can buy travel passes which cover combinations of Zones.
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