Transport and the shape of the city in Lyon

The network went zoned in September 2025

On 1 September 2025 TCL absorbed Les Cars du Rhône and the Libellule network, and now covers the whole Rhône département and the Métropole de Lyon. With that came a new fare structure of six tariff zones and four fare families, depending on which zones you cross. Before then the network was flat-fare with no zones at all, so any guide describing a zoneless Lyon is out of date. Lyon and its immediate built-up area sit in the core zones 1 and 2, and the everyday adult pass is sold as a zones 1 et 2 product, but check your own commune on tcl.fr rather than assuming where the boundary falls.

What a pass costs

SYTRAL Mobilités sets TCL fares and revises them periodically, so take the price for your own zones and age band from tcl.fr rather than from any guide, this one included. What does not move is the discount that matters most, and it is not a fare: any employer, private or public, must reimburse half the cost of a TCL season ticket under the prime transport, which halves the real cost for anyone in work. SYTRAL publishes reduced monthly passes at €24.30 for 11 to 17 year-olds, €25 for 18 to 25 year-olds and students aged 26 and 27, €36.30 for retired people from 60 and everyone from 65, and €50.80 for parents of three or more children under 18.

• Children under 10 travel free.
• The single ticket and the full adult pass are priced on tcl.fr, and what you pay depends on which zones you cross.
• The tarification solidaire is free for people on the RSA, the adult disability allowance or the old-age solidarity allowance, and cuts 85% off the ordinary price for jobseekers on the ARE, people on ACRE, scholarship pupils and several youth schemes.
• Tick'Air, at €3, covers the whole network for the day during a pollution peak.
• The youth band is a season ticket like any other, so the employer's 50% applies to it too.

Tickets, cards and validation

TCL has moved to rechargeable contactless tickets rather than magnetic strips, and season tickets sit on the TCL card, formerly the Técély. Contactless bank card and phone payment is accepted at some 4,000 validators, on buses and trams and at the entrances to metro and funicular stations, which pays and validates a zones 1 and 2 journey in one gesture. Validate every time you board, including when you change vehicle.

• Vélo'v is the Métropole de Lyon's bike-share, with docking stations across the city and an electric option. Subscription options and prices are on velov.grandlyon.com.

The airport is not on your pass

Rhônexpress runs from Lyon Part-Dieu to Saint-Exupéry airport and its TGV station in under 30 minutes, every 15 minutes, from 04:25 to midnight daily. An adult single is €16.30 bought online and €17.40 at the machine, and a return is €28.50 online or €30.30 at the machine. Booking a return a month ahead brings it to €26.20 and two months ahead to €22.90. SYTRAL Mobilités deliberately kept the Rhônexpress fare range outside the unified TCL tariff, so no pass, carnet or single ticket covers it and holding one earns no discount.

• Travellers aged 12 to 25 pay €10.70 single and €20.30 return. Under-12s travel free.
• A 10-journey book is €143.

Driving and the ZFE

Lyon's low-emission zone bans Crit'Air 3, 4 and 5 vehicles and unclassified ones outright, Crit'Air 3 having been added on 1 January 2025. In practice that excludes diesel cars first registered before 1 January 2011 and petrol cars registered before 1 January 2006, leaving only Crit'Air 0, 1 and 2. The perimeter covers Lyon, Caluire-et-Cuire, Villeurbanne, Bron and Vénissieux in the sectors inside the boulevard périphérique Laurent Bonnevay, plus the M6, the M7, the Laurent Bonnevay itself and the northern ring road. Foreign-registered vehicles are subject to the same rules, and the fine is €68 for a car and €135 for a lorry or bus.

• The petit rouleur derogation allows up to 52 days of access a year for occasional drivers and visitors.
• A separate horaires décalés derogation has run since 1 January 2025 for Crit'Air 3 drivers who start, finish or carry out their work between 21:00 and 06:00 on more than 52 days a year.
• Since 1 September 2025 a Crit'Air 3 owner in work or looking for work can apply too, where the reference tax income per share is €16,300 or less and they work or live in one of the five ZFE communes.
• Other exemptions exist, including a permanent one for holders of a carte mobilité inclusion carrying the disabled-parking mention; zfe.grandlyon.com lists the full set and applications go through the Toodego platform.