A pregnant woman using the Paris metro to travel has been fined 60-euro fine for walking the wrong way. This fine has sparked outrage on social media.
The woman was trying to save time on her journey and, was given the ticket last Tuesday by inspectors at Concorde station near the Louvre art gallery.
“Bravo for this racket,” her partner wrote sarcastically on Twitter, alongside a picture of her printed penalty notice.
“A 60-euro fine without notice for a pregnant woman who goes the wrong way.”
The Paris metro operator RATP stood by the penalty, a spokesman told media tabloid on Saturday the one-way systems are clearly marked and are in place for a reason to avoid “incidents” and control the flow of people.
He added that such tickets for this kind of offence is “infrequent” and it is up to the RATP inspectors to apply them or not.
Michel Babut from the leading passenger group FNAUT branded the fine “completely stupid”, adding the rules need changing.
“It’s a total aberration,” he said to newspapers in Paris.
Another person who was also targeted told Le Figaro she thought the signs were there simply to make sure people did not get lost in the corridors.
“I was the only person in the corridor when they stopped me. It’s unacceptable. We pay €75 a month for a service that doesn’t always work, with seedy corridors and trains.”
One Twitter user pointed out that the fine was more than for not having a ticket, adding “words fail me”.
Another suggested that instead of fining people for walking the wrong way, they should be fined for standing on the left of escalators.
This user said the country made him ashamed.