It is in Toulouse that transport is the cheapest for students, recalls the president of Tisséo
Tisséo is adjusting its prices for the start of the 2022 school year. All consumer rates increase by 2%. Thus, the unit ticket goes from €1.70 to €1.80. The monthly subscription goes from 54 to 55€, from 540 to 550€ for the annual subscription. Are these increases inevitable for the common carrier? Jean-Michel Lattes, president of Tisséo Collectivités et Ingénierie, decrypts the situation and the challenges of this return to France Bleu Occitanie.
How do you justify these price increases?
The ticket price increases every four years. Every four years because we’re not going to issue a €1.73 ticket for example, so it’s easier to make a 10% increase every four years. Increase of 2% while inflation is close to 6%. We wanted to maintain a reasonable ratio between the increase in prices and inflation, knowing that we have extended social pricing. Many are not affected by this device.
But you create an income criterion for retirees, for non-scholarship students…
Yes, this concerns retirees who receive double the minimum old age, or roughly double the minimum wage. Social pricing is still applied to scholarship students. If you look closely at the grid, you will see that the cheapest subscriptions in France are in Toulouse. With Grenoble, we are the two least expensive cities in France and very largely for students.
You have no choice but to increase the prices?
On a choice to do so in a reasonable way. What is the corollary of the price increase? It is the investment.
So travelers pay for the future 3rd metro line?
You also pay for the increase in electricity. You must have realized that the ratio of the increase in electricity is times ten. The Toulouse system runs largely on electricity. The price of electricity moves from day to day, the ratio is 50,000 euros. We are on financial heights that are very substantial. But I note that we remain very well below inflation. You know people ask me a lot to increase the supply, how do you increase the supply if you’re out of revenue? I do not know.
Do you also have to cushion the losses of the health crisis?
Annual and commercial revenues represent around 100 million euros, we fell to less than 60 million during the coronavirus period. So today Toulouse has largely regained its market share, faster than other cities. However, all the data must be taken into account and it is also the price of the ticket.