Visitors and tourists will still have to pay 1.60 euro per trip as southern French city becomes latest in Europe to make bus and tram rides free for locals
Not sure how financially viable it is (would love to see the sums though) but fingers crossed, if it works in cities, it can be expanded to the country too.
I can only speak from a UK perspective but I can only hope the fuckwits don't use it to abuse it. It's a genuinely progressive move and probably the best way of bridging the gap between combustion vehicles and EV's, or even bypassing them entirely.
It is, and again I'm speaking from a UK-centric viewpoint, where the public services are privatised to the point where financial viability does have an impact on it, which is unfortunate as it waters the service down for everybody.
The article doesn't make it clear if the transport operation is state owned or privately operated, hopefully it's the former because I agree with the notion that it should be seen as a service with a net benefit rather than a cost on the accounting books.
The article says that 90% of 39 million euros in public transport revenue came from locals, so the cost should be around 35 million, perhaps with some savings on staff or infrastructure since fewer people have to buy tickets (as well as possibly less road maintenance if fewer people use cars as a result). And the city is financing it through a new tax on companies with more than 11 employees.
It's not a world ending amount of money, so I don't see why it shouldn't be viable. Germany's 49€-ticket, while currently having some financing trouble, is similar too in that it is extremely cheap, and is nationwide, and it happened in a nation with an extremely strong car lobby.
It's not free, but it should be possible anywhere with enough political will.
Last year city residents accounted for 90% of the 39 million euros in public transport ticket sales.
So 90% of the tickets were bought by locals, not that 90% of the total revenue of that public transport service came from the tickets that locals bought. In fact this number is wildly overestimated. A lot of PT services operate based on taxes (same as this policy) and in many cases the revenue from tickets can be as low as 10%.
Honestly considering that only 10% of the tickets are coming from non residents I am surprised that it’s not free for everyone. For sure the loss of revenue there will be very small compared to the increased efficiency in operations, either from less maintenance/employees required but also to make onboarding faster/easier.
I was also not aware of these numbers until recently, when I heard thr Freakonomics episode on free public transportation.
i get the equvalent of a 49€-Ticket for 25€ at my company. that's a great deal. unfortunately public transport is extremely unreliable in my part of the city, so i can't really use it to get to work. plus i save an hour of my time every day i drive to work.
It's not the first city/town in europe that's done this. Many medium-sized towns in my country have free public transportation. It works very well and means less cars.
People don't abuse it, because how would you even abuse something like that?
In Scotland, multiple local authorities signed up to a scheme to allow young persons to use cards to get free travel. Fantastic idea and one that would be awesome to see spread to all age bands, but the problem was that antisocial behaviour increased in and around transport hubs, largely because of the increased mobility of people.
It'll be interesting to see if any lessons learned are integrated into other city planning where these schemes are rolled out.
I lived here, it's amazing. It was already free for -25yo but making it free for everyone is a good thing. It should be free for tourist too imo.
It's 10euro for 10 travel in Montpellier, where I am in Canada it's 4 eurocad each, so I bike more.
I guess different parts of the world have different standards haha, my blood was rising when the price for a tram/bus ticket in Bordeaux went above 1,50€
Imagine paying 4€ in Oslo. I know that Norway has high cost of living but it seems high. Though the price decrease based on the numbers of tickets you buy through the month.
That's fair, I'd need to pay at least €500 to get my ass in France from Canada to begin with, which is why €5 isn't a problem for me. Locally my transit ranges from the equivalent of €1,75 to €4,25 a trip and sure I'd be disappointed if fares went up.
Most of the transit users in my city commute in from the burbs, so free transit just for residents wouldn't decrease car traffic all that much. It would have to be for everyone.
The French city of Montpellier in southern France became the latest European metropolis to allow all its residents to ride public transport for free.
From Thursday evening, Montpellier residents with a special pass were able to ride trams and buses free of charge in the southern city.
Michael Delafosse, the Socialist mayor of the city of 500,000 people, promised free public transport when he was elected in 2020.
Before the initiative to make public transport free in Montpellier, just 86,000 people had paid subscriptions to use it, according to figures obtained by AFP.
But that figure has tripled to 260,000 subscribers in recent days running up to the launch of the free pass, either in card or smartphone app form.
Last year city residents accounted for 90% of the 39 million euros in public transport ticket sales.
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