France is to launch a cut-price monthly rail pass valid on certain trains nationwide next summer, copying a hugely successful move in Germany to encourage greener travel.
The rail pass will cost about €49 (£42) a month and allow users unlimited travel on TER regional trains and intercity trains, the transport minister, Clément Beaune, told France 2.
The president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday that France’s regional authorities had agreed to the move, which follows restrictions on domestic air travel imposed earlier this year.
Beaune said: “It will be simple. The French – irrespective of their age – can buy this pass and have unlimited travel on an intercity or TER for a flat, inexpensive price.”
Beaune acknowledged the idea follows Germany’s Deutschlandticket, launched in May, which allows unlimited travel on regional and local transport for €49 a month.
He said: “The ideal is to have something a little like what the Germans and other European countries have … to encourage train use.”
The German rail pass does not include high-speed intercity express trains and France’s high-speed TGV will also not be included in the French pass.
Beaune said “if possible” the French pass would also cover local travel by bus, metro and tram within cities.
Germany’s pass, which is equally funded by the German state and its regions, is expected to cost authorities €3bn annually until 2025.
Macron’s move has raised eyebrows in some quarters, with Franck Dhersin, the vice-president of the northern Hauts-de-France region in charge of transport, saying the “president often has good ideas … [but] it’s your idea and you can finance it”.
In another widely publicised move encouraging green travel, the Austrian rail operator ÖBB said on Wednesday it would run a night train between Paris and Berlin, starting in December.
