https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/04/paris-metro-paper-ticket-paper-journey-transport [p] Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Advertisement US edition[ ] * US edition * UK edition * Australia edition * International edition The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian: news website of the year Search jobs Sign in Search [ ] * News * Opinion * Sport * Culture * Lifestyle ShowMoreShow More * [ ]News + US news + World news + Environment + Soccer + US politics + Business + Tech + Science + Newsletters + Fight to vote * [ ]Opinion + The Guardian view + Columnists + Letters + Opinion videos + Cartoons * [ ]Sport + Soccer + NFL + Tennis + MLB + MLS + NBA + NHL + F1 * [ ]Culture + Film + Books + Music + Art & design + TV & radio + Stage + Classical + Games * [ ]Lifestyle + Fashion + Food + Recipes + Love & sex + Home & garden + Health & fitness + Family + Travel + Money * Search Search + Make a contribution + Subscribe * + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Puzzles app + Guardian content licensing site + The Guardian app + Video + Podcasts + Pictures + Inside the Guardian + Guardian Weekly + Crosswords + Corrections * + Facebook + Twitter * + Search jobs + Digital Archive + Guardian Puzzles app + Guardian content licensing site * World * Europe * US * Americas * Asia * Australia * Middle East * Africa * Inequality * Global development Paris Paris Metro paper ticket reaches end of the line after more than 120 years Iconic ticket on one-way trip to transport history as city opts for payment by travelcards and mobiles Parisian Metro tickets owned by the French author and collector Gregoire Thonnat. [ ] Parisian Metro tickets owned by the French author and collector Gregoire Thonnat. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images Parisian Metro tickets owned by the French author and collector Gregoire Thonnat. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images Kim Willsher in Paris Tue 4 Oct 2022 05.41 EDTFirst published on Tue 4 Oct 2022 05.12 EDT * * * It has inspired French film-makers and songwriters, proven useful to cannabis smokers and aestheticians and served as an emergency bookmark or jotter - but now the Paris Metro ticket has reached the end of the line. The city's public transport authority is phasing out the rectangular pieces of cardboard that have kept the capital's travellers on the move for the past 120 years. Twenty years after the New York subway finished with metal tokens, the Metro ticket, measuring 6.5cm x 3cm and white with a brown magnetic strip, is on a one-way journey to transport history. Across the Channel, London still allows the purchase of single and return paper tickets for its tube network, but charges close to double the cost of the equivalent peak contactless ticket. The Ile-de-France regional transport authority, of which Paris is part, had hoped the paper ticket would have long departed by now but the Covid crisis, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a global shortage of microchips were blamed for delaying the introduction of newer technology. "We were in a hurry but the chip crisis slowed us down," Laurent Probst, the director general of Ile-de-France Mobilites told Agence France-Presse. The first Metro ticket was used at 1pm on 19 July 1900 at the inauguration of Line 1 for the 1900 Paris exhibition. It cost just 25 centimes in old money for a first-class seat. Now a single ticket costs EUR1.90. In the 1952 film Le Salaire de la Peur, Yves Montand offers a Parisian Metro ticket as a token of friendship. Serge Gainsbourg's 1950 song Le Poinconneur des Lilas pays tribute to the poinconneurs (ticket punchers) whose jobs disappeared with the arrival of automatic turnstiles. Raymond Queneau's novel Zazie dans le Metro, made into a 1960s film by Louis Malle, featured a paper ticket on the early paperback cover. Gregoire Thonnat, the author of the 2019 book Petite Histoire du Ticket de Metro Parisien (A short history of the Paris Metro ticket), writes: "Since 1900, the Metro ticket has accompanied our daily life, at the bottom of our pockets, in our wallets or in the middle of the pages of our books ... it will soon disappear. "It's one of the elements of Paris life. It's lifespan is very short, around an hour to an hour and a half, but we've become attached to them. It's irrational." The transport authorities believe one in 10 tickets is lost, damaged or forgotten at the bottom or a pocket or bag. Ticket-issuing machines are being phased out across the city network; by 2025 the Paris Metro ticket will have reached its final stop, replaced by tickets on mobile phones or travelcards. This article was amended on 5 October 2022. The photo caption on an earlier version wrongly stated the illustrated Parisian Metro tickets as being from 1973 to 1992. 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