RATP is preparing to test a new type of transport ticket: the bank card. In partnership with the Manager.one online bank, the transport authority continues to modernize access to its trains, subways and buses.
At the end of August, we learned that the famous cardboard magnetic t + ticket, well known to Ile-de-France residents, would gradually disappear. As of October 14, it will no longer be on sale in around a hundred stations and, in March 2022, it will no longer be possible to buy it at machines and counters throughout the RATP network. To replace it, you will have to use a Navigo pass (in card format or directly on your smartphone), a contactless t + ticket, or even, for breakdown assistance, pay for your trip by SMS. Faster, more convenient and secure access to public transport according to the RATP, which can also be done using a bank card!
Yes, this is a great first, but we have just learned that a partnership – in the form of a test – has been concluded between the Ile-de-France transport network and the Manager.one online bank, supported by the Wormser Frères bank. Thereby, our colleagues from Echoes confirm that a Visa payment card incorporating the Navigo pass will soon be offered to Manager.one customers. Thus, they will be able to take the RER, the metro or the bus with their bank card, which they will only have to present on the NFC readers of the turnstiles and access terminals. This partnership benefits from financial support from Bpifrance to the tune of € 210,000.
A partnership extended to new banks if successful?
Technically, Manager.one’s bank cards will integrate Calypso, the technology used by the Navigo pass. Indeed, if it is theoretically possible to manage access to transport with the technologies already present in any bank card, there is an incompatibility between the network of RATP terminals and the latter. It is therefore more economical to move towards integrating Calypso with this type of card for bank customers using transport, rather than imagining a new modernization of all the access points of the network, which is very long and expensive ( in addition to having already been undertaken a few years ago).
Note, if this is the first time that the Ile-de-France transport network will be accessible with a bank card, experiments of this kind have already taken place elsewhere, such as in Dijon, Dreux or Aix-en-Provence. London and New York have also adopted the bank card as a possible transport ticket for a few years. In Île-de-France, it will be necessary to see whether this first partnership of its kind leads to a generalization of the service in other banks, including brands that do not primarily target professional customers. The idea being that by 2024, for the holding of the Olympic Games in Paris, all the modernizations of the network and its accesses will be completed.
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