"Carte Orange" Transport Pass
Example of Carte Orange (Orange Card), the Paris combined transportation (bus+subway+train) monthly pass that existed between 1975 and 2009.
The card got its name from the distinctive orange color.
The card, came with a platic protective sleeve (as seen here) with two slots. One for the card itself, and another for the current month's ticket. The card was nominative and would only be valid if it had a valid ticket and the carrier's photo.
On the card can be seen:
- The logos of RATP (Parisian mass transit), SNCF (French national railway), and APTR (Association of road transportation).
- A stamp that had to overlay the identification photo (to avoid people changing/swaping card)
- A card identification number that had to be written on the pairing monthly ticket
- A small illustration (left bottom corner) representing the silhouette of Paris (in white) in the center of concentric circles, overlapped with the shape of the Seine river (in black). The concentric circles are representations of the transportation “zones”, labeled 1 to 5. A ticket would be bought for specific zones. The more zones covered, the higher the price. The zone numbers can also be seen on the monthly ticket (here it's a zone 1 to 2 pass)
The pass was most likely designed in-house by the RATP and SCNF. Orange was most likely chosen as it was a popular modern, almost futuristic color in France in the 1970s and was also used on the brand-new bullet train TGV.
Launched in 1975, the Carte Orange simplified Paris-region public transport fares by introducing the first flat-rate pass offering unlimited travel across the network for a set period. Initially reserved for workers with proof of employment, it soon opened to everyone. This first generation of card, depicted here, was replaced with a new design in the 90s. This specific example was Marc Jacobs's personal pass during his Parisian summer stay in 1982.
Bonus: Video from 1975 uploaded to Youtube by INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel) French National Video Archives, about the launch and how to use the Carte Orange
