A common transport "ticket" across France ... or here?

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This is from the Local:

French government announces plans for nationwide transport pass

French government announces plans for nationwide transport pass

Beaune said on Wednesday that he hoped to develop a billet unique that can be used on long-distance SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) trains, local transport services and city public transport such as the Paris and Marseille Metro.

But there’s a catch – it hasn’t been invented yet.

In an interview with 20 Minutes, Beaune said that he hopes the single ticket would “revolutionise the daily life of public transport users in France”.

What is the billet unique?

As we mentioned it doesn’t exist yet, so there are plenty of details as yet unconfirmed, but the plan as outline by Beaune would be to have a single travel pass that is compatible with all public transport system.

So for example users could use it on buses, trams and the Metro in Paris, get a train ticket to Marseille with the pass and then use it to get around Marseille via Metro or bus.

At present all French cities have their own transport operators, who all have different tickets, travel passes and apps which are not compatible with each other. For trains, users must buy tickets from SNCF (either on paper or via the SNCF Connect app).

Beaune’s proposal is to create a single pass or app that can be used anywhere, although individual apps/passes will remain in operation – one ring to rule them all, if you like.

Individual pricing for tickets would remain the responsibility of local authorities or SNCF...

That says a lot more than the ministry's public statement, which is is very vague about what this is or covers - even the word for it: billet, ticket, and titre are all used. I think we have a similar problem, and lack a general term like titre (a legal title, in this case entitling you to travel). How well-founded the article is is another matter. But I'm sure this thingumy is meant to be a card and/or app.

You might think this is easier in France, with its centralised railway, then here with our "fragmented" one. But for heavy rail it's the opposite, with each region doing its own thing since Mitterand's decentralisation handed them the responsibility (and money) for regional rail services. And all the metros and trams (which we have so few of) are determinedly different to the city next door's.

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How would such an idea fit in with GBR^▸ (Great British Railways)? Obviously that depends what GBR turns into. But the devolution of city and regional services was strikingly absent from the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail; there were just some vague words about co-operation. And the interaction of GBR's railway with those more local modes was even more absent.

What WSPR did say was:

31. Pay As You Go journeys will be expanded outside London to make millions more trips straightforward.

The roll-out of Pay As You Go, where passengers just tap in and out in a few seconds with a card or mobile, has supported significant passenger growth in London.66 It has shown that upfront investment can be more than repaid by cost savings elsewhere and by making travel quicker and more attractive for passengers.

Great British Railways will invest substantially in growing London-style Pay As You Go contactless ticketing on urban and commuter networks beyond the capital. It will learn lessons from the failure of previous regional contactless initiatives, including one by Transport for the North, and will adopt global

Mark Harper's speech did confirm the bit on TfL^» (Transport for London - about)'s Pay-as-you-Go ticketing (aka contactless) but not about anywhere else - and certainly nothing about devolution!

More relevant, perhaps, was this bit in WSPR:

39. Journeys across rail, bus, tram and bike will become seamless in the future.

The government has committed £3 billion of new money to bring about a bus revolution in England outside London.71 Railway stations will increasingly be hubs for local bus services, with full information displayed about connecting buses and greater availability of integrated ticketing between rail, light rail and bus services.

The government’s ambition is for passengers to be able to buy a through ticket from any bus stop to any station with a single tap on their phone or contactless bank card. The government will work with operators to promote and improve the PlusBus scheme, which already allows rail-bus through ticketing, including by making PlusBus tickets available as digital tickets so that passengers can start their journey on a bus.

New transport services, such as automated vehicles and rented e-scooters, are emerging, with trials currently underway. As these mature, Great British Railways will need to aim for seamless integration and learn from the errors that have held up integration with other mobility services in the past.

Though that doesn't look very practical, at least starting from where we are, does it?