Kudos to Paris Mayor, Bertrand Delanoe for the inauguration in June 2008, of the Vogueo Waterway Transit System!

After 2007’s successful implementation of Velib, the city-wide free bicycle rental system, the River Seine is newly enlisted into the public transportation system.

For the moment, the waterway route includes five stops from Gare Austerlitz to Maisons-Alfort in the Val-de-Marne (Southeast of the city limits), each stop close to a Metro station. But Mayor Delanoe is hoping that by the year 2010, the success of Vogueo will be obvious, and an expansion of routes will ensue.

Boats carrying 70 passengers take approximately 40 minutes to get from the first stop to the last and the cost of one ride is 3 euros.

However, RATP cards such as Navigo, which are used throughout the Metro system, are honored on Vogueo.
Boats are in operation 365 days a year. Weekdays the schedule begins at 7am and runs until 8:30pm. On weekends the first boats depart at 10am and service ends at 8pm.

If Mayor Delanoe’s gaze into the future proves to be correct, this budding network will soon be a waterway metro line, augmenting the train and bus schedules, giving riders the option of commuting along the River Seine. And why not make use of the city’s lovely river, which snakes its way through the middle of Paris, dividing it into Right Bank and Left Bank? It works in Venice, Italy!
Will Parisians champion the expansion of fledgling Vogueo?

Time will tell.

www.vogueo.fr