What is AKHA, the Waze of public transport that Valérie Pécresse wants to do and remove

© RATP

On January 1, 2025, there will be changes for users in the Paris region. First of all, and without much surprise, the Navigo Pass has increased, going from 86.20 euros per month to 88.80 euros. But that's not all: the pricing of the single ticket has been completely revised. The price is now 2.15 euros for the metro and RER and 2 euros for the bus and tram instead of 2.15 euros (or 1.74 if you took a book of 10). These price increases are enough to make users angry, especially since the services are not necessarily up to par.

In this sense, an application was launched at the beginning of 2024. Relatively little known, this application benefits from an unexpected publicity stunt. Indeed, this Monday, January 13, 2025, Valérie Pécresse, the president of the Île-de-France Region and Île-de-France Mobilités, pointed out this application that she finds scandalous. But this statement backfired and downloads of the AKHA application are on the rise.

AKHA, an application that reports controllers, but not only that…

The goal of the AKHA application is to “reclaim public transport”. Like Waze, AKHA is a collaborative application. It is therefore its users who make it live, who can report problems in public transport in the Paris region in real time.

It is thus possible to make three types of reports: SOS to warn of the presence of pickpockets or harassers, Delay to keep informed of traffic conditions and AKHA. If this last type of report is not explained, everyone has understood that it allows users to be alerted to the presence of controllers. And this is precisely what Valérie Pécresse denounces.

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Indeed, the president of the Île-de-France Region and Île-de-France Mobilités says she is “scandalized” by this application which facilitates fraud “shamelessly” and which, according to her, provides assistance to delinquents and criminals. Consequently, Valérie Pécresse announced that she had formally notified the owner of the application and is asking Google and Apple to suspend it. She also stated that Île-de-France Mobilités will file a complaint. Let us recall that according to article L2242-10 of the Transport Code, it is illegal to report the presence of controllers. This can result in two months of imprisonment and a fine of 3,750 euros.

But this “rant” from Valérie Pécresse did not, it seems, have had the desired effect. Since her intervention on X (ex-Twitter), downloads of AKHA have multiplied on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. The application that had not yet reached the general public is getting a big boost in the spotlight and it intends to take advantage of it.

Sidox, the creator and developer of AKHA, responded to Valérie Pécresse on the social network, inviting those who wish to support the project via a crowdfunding campaign.

It remains to be seen whether the application will survive the wrath of the president of the Île-de-France region and Île-de-France Mobilités. He says that the main goal of this application is to solve a daily mobility problem, giving a voice to people who depend on the train, metro or RER networks.

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