More flexible night-time travel

Current night travel, i.e. between 1am and 5am when the public rail transport service has shut down for the night, concerns several hundred thousand people per night over the entire greater Paris area, and this number is constantly on the increase.

The shorter working week, growth in service-sector employment (with staggered working hours), new, more flexible schedules and the wide variety of night-time entertainment in Paris have created new travel needs, particularly in the evenings and at night.

The vast majority of people head for the outer suburbs before 2am, and they are followed by an influx into Paris after 4am, with larger numbers at weekends than on weekday nights.

The vast majority of people head for the outer suburbs before 2am, and they are followed by an influx into Paris after 4am, with larger numbers at weekends than on weekday nights. However, the majority of users, transport organisation authorities and operators have all observed a huge discrepancy between the supply of public transport available and demand, which has changed and continues to change in the greater Paris area. Furthermore, the number of users concerned, their distribution over the area, specific night-time travel conditions and consequent expectations in terms of security and proximity, prove that bus and coach services need to be adapted within the capital to meet night-time travel requirements.

To facilitate travel in and around Paris, the Ile-de-France region, City of Paris, departments and the Ile-de-France transport union (STIF) have introduced a new night bus service with the transport operators RATP and Transilien SNCF. This service is called "Noctilien". It operates in the greater Paris area every night from 12:30am to 5:30am.