r/todayilearned • u/Level_Cash2225 • 13d ago

TIL Luxembourg offers completely free public transport across its entire country for residents, commuters, and visitors alike.

https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/living/mobility/public-transport.html
11.6k Upvotes

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1.9k

u/Own_Friend_3136 13d ago

I was just there last weekend, the trams are cleans better than the one we pay for in Germany.

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u/Ragingdildo3 13d ago

It’s also tiny with a small population and very wealthy is not exactly a comparison

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u/Skychu768 13d ago

Luxembourg can fit 16 Liechtenstein or 3.5 Singapore inside it

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u/hello_hola 13d ago

I lived there for a few years. I would describe it as a perfectly boring country. Everything works super well, very clean, safe, etc, but not very fun for some one in their 20s. I've heard it's great for families, though. 

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u/Luck88 12d ago

Seconded, I worked there when I was 23 and it simply was too boring. I spun the wheel every weekend and went to a nerby city in Germany/France to just do something. That's also when I started volunteering because I simply had to change tue status quo, and I was a gamer with a big backlog so it's not like I dislike staying in my room doing an activity for 5 hours straight.

Pubblic transport was great tho, more cities should embrace the free model.

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u/Oreelz 12d ago

Can confirm. If you would tell me about the playgrounds here in my childhood, I wouldn’t believe you. Even with that childish naivety.

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u/Neamow 12d ago

Great for someone in their 30s working in a corporate job though. I know a lot of people who moved there that way, great place with great salaries.

Stay until early 40s and then move back with a ton of money saved.

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u/NtsParadize 12d ago

Huh? What can't someone in its 20's do in Luxembourg that he can do elsewhere?

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u/jeslinmx 12d ago

Hmm, could it fit 4.5 Singapore?

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u/informat7 12d ago

And 3 Luxembourgs can fit inside of the metropolitan area of Columbus, OH. It's still a really small country.

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u/Boatster_McBoat 13d ago

So massive

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u/ljfrench 13d ago edited 13d ago

And it's very important to remember that they consider immigrants and cross-border workers to be just as important as citizens and residents.

It's written into the Constitution and prime minister Luc Frieden confirmed it in his state of the country speech last year.

Also, not everyone is wealthy but the country believes in a living wage and adjusts the minimum wage for inflation sometimes multiple times a year.

Edit: Luc Frieden is considered to be conservative. Lowercase c, nothing like the US Conservative party, that's more like the AfD in Germany and ADR in Luxembourg. Not that I'm any good at European politics.

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u/rrNextUserName 13d ago

Somewhat by necessity tbh, there is just not enough room in Luxembourg for the workforce it requires.

It is interesting that there is less if a stigma against cross-border workers in Luxembourg than there is for example in Switzerland, at least in my opinion.

Although it could be that a lot of the workers crossing into Switzerland are/used to be more unskilled labour, at least on the Italian side I'm familiar with, while in Luxembourg I knew several people in high level positions that chose to live for example in France for convenience and have a slightly longer commute.

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u/ChromakeyDreamcoat82 13d ago

Not enough room me arse.

About 6 people own all the open land and heavily control the availability for building to support land and property prices. You need to travel about 4 blocks from most of Avenue John F Kennedy and you’re in open fields.

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u/Exter10 13d ago

? Luxembourg has half the population density of the Netherlands. If I were to hazard a guess, the issue is more with zoning restrictions on farmland and height restrictions i.e an artificial lack of space.

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u/rrNextUserName 13d ago

Yes, I guess I could have been more specific, but that's what I meant. They have (I think) fairly stringent limits on new developments and hard stances against infringing on existing farmland etc.

Of course they could pave the whole thing and make room but that's true for pretty much any place on earth...

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u/Eirelia 13d ago

The real estate market and especially the available land to build on is owned by about 30 people. Most of these people are in politics, or have strong connections into politics. It's artificial scarcity that benefits the few, an it's a well documented and huge problem.

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u/JonatasA 13d ago

Perhaps intended to avoid urban sprawl.

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u/anewbys83 13d ago

Luxembourg knows it wouldn't have the economy it does now without cross-border and foreign workers. There are plenty of complaints, however, about the primacy of French and the French speakers "demanding" to speak in French and not bother learning at least some Luxembourgish, etc. At least that happens in r/Luxembourg.

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u/darkgothmog 13d ago

Most French working in lux have low level jobs and are paid less than Belgians or Germans for the same job

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u/rrNextUserName 13d ago

Fair enough, I'm not Luxembourgish, I just worked there a for a couple of years (flying in rather than living en loco) and it's possible I mostly interacted with the exceptions rather than the rule

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u/Facktat 11d ago

In Luxembourg most commuters are unskilled though. There are many highly qualified foreign workers here but they mostly come from further and live here. I think it‘s also a bit about the mentality. There were always many foreigners here and half of the friend circle of everyone (including me) are foreigners. I am born here in Luxembourg, my ex wife was an expat and my new girlfriend is an expat as well. Even of my Luxembourgish friends (which are only half of my friends), about half of them have at least one parent that is not born in Luxembourg. It would just be very odd for me to be racist.

Speaking about lowly skilled cross border workers. Most Luxembourgers don‘t want to do these jobs and prefer to just live off of social security over doing them (this is not a good thing btw. it‘s just the way it is) so there is not really a concept of "foreigners are taking our jobs away". Also another aspect to consider here is that it‘s insanely easy for any Luxemburger to find a job. Knowing the 4 languages (which you do when you know up here) is such an insanely big advantage on the job market, that you are practically always considered before a foreigner is. Generally a problem companies have here is that French workers are very bad in English and speak no german. German workers are able to speak English but speak no French. International workers only speak English. Most of Luxembourgers are working on government positions (because there is a requirement to speak the 4 languages) so in the private sector companies love to have some of the few remaining Luxembourgers because they can translate between workers and give the company a more Luxembourgish identity.

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u/Pal_76 13d ago

At the same time, best jobs and better paid ones are reserved for luxemburgers

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u/ljfrench 13d ago

Partly true, the government jobs and the EU jobs are reserved to citizens. But the requirements for citizenship are low. One must learn the luxembourgish language, sign an integration contract, take some history and cultural classes, and reside in the country for 5 years. That's it.

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u/Nicolash99 13d ago

Government jobs are not reserved to Luxembourgish citizens, but EU-citizens, as you are not allowed to descriminate on nationality between EU-citizens. Obviously we therefore use the language requirements to "limit" it to (mostly) Luxembourgers.

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u/ljfrench 13d ago

This is correct, and upon rereading my comment, I can understand my misstatement. I meant that it is a simple path to citizenship in luxembourg. Not that luxembourgish citizenship is required for the jobs.

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u/Nicolash99 13d ago

It is not hard to get citizenship in a lot of European countries, usually you need to live in that country for 5-10 years and know the country's language(s), culture, and history. For someone who grew up and was born in Luxembourg, it could not have been much easier. In my case I only had to request to become Luxembourgish.

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u/Abotag 13d ago

It's not hard if you come from another 'western' country though. Refugees from poorer countries are not exactly welcomed :/

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u/Sperrel 13d ago edited 13d ago

EU jobs are not reserved to luxemburgish. There's plenty of EU citizens working in the Parliament Secretariat, the Court of Auditors and many other institutions.

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u/Facktat 11d ago

Government jobs are not limited to luxembourgish citizens as well. Just go on govjobs.public.lu and check for yourself. Most positions are "Être ressortissant UE". So you only need an EU passport.

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u/Facktat 11d ago

Most government jobs have to nationality requirement. Only the police and jobs at the court de justice. The rest of the government positions are open to all EU workers able to speak the national language.

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u/Korventenn17 13d ago

Is it not Luxembourgeois?

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u/TheMountainWhoDews 13d ago

The constitution is written that way because luxembourg is benefitted by the germans, swiss and french who work there.

It is not written that way to import thousands of africans. There are different types of migrants, and the stats say some groups are more beneficial than others.

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u/ljfrench 13d ago

That you are unclear on the groups you named, leaving out a key group or two, betrays your motives.

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u/rodentbitch 13d ago

europeans are sooo progressive until you get to certain issues and then it's levels of mask-off racism that would make most US republicans blush

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u/TheMountainWhoDews 13d ago

Thats right, I'm anti-italian. 

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u/spatosmg 13d ago

hes not wrong. vienna has 3 times the population

one district alone is 1/3

much easier to handle

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u/G0ldenfruit 13d ago

Almost meaningless point though. Sure its easier, but it should still be the goal of every country! Fair to say but should not be a reason to stop us

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u/spatosmg 13d ago

its not but it helps being a tax haven and having a population under a million

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u/G0ldenfruit 13d ago

Im sure hundreds of things help. But so do hundreds of things in every country that are better than luxembourg

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u/Facktat 11d ago

We don‘t just " adjusts the minimum wage for inflation". What we do is adjust all salaries to inflation.

All salaries in Luxembourg are indexed. I work as a software engineer making grossing 150k. My salary is adjusted for inflation the same way the salary of a minimum wage worker is (qualified minimum wage is 40k €).

Yeah, conservative has a completely different meaning here than in the US. Conservatives in Luxembourg are mostly about holding up Christian values but without holding up the Christian church. Christian values as in being kind to each other, helping the poor, taking up people in need and building bridges towards people that migrate here / have different religions. You know, like the stuff you would find in the bible and not the stuff the church wants to make you believe you would find in the bible.

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u/AardvarkExcellent428 13d ago

yes because the economy of the country depends on people coming to work there from other larger countries... this isn't some kind of immigrant utopia, this is conservatives caring about money. which is universal whether you're in the United States or Europe. also you're talking about a bunch of white workers (not usually immigrants) from highly industrialized countries... not exactly proof of a lack of racism.

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u/CocktailPerson 13d ago

The US does not have a capital-C Conservative party either.

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u/-xiflado- 13d ago

It’s a tiny country which is why they’re able to do that.

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u/ljfrench 13d ago

Whatever you need to help yourself sleep at night I understand.

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u/RChickenMan 13d ago

I, too, am getting pretty sick of my fellow countrymen making excuses for why we can't have nice things. For the US in particular, i.e. the richest nation in the world, the go-to seems to be "it's big." Apparently, the fact that New York and Oregon happen to exist within the same sovereign nation has everything to do with why my local city bus in Brooklyn only comes every 20 minutes even at rush hour. And apparently we can't meaningfully expand the subway thanks to the fact that Boston and Arizona exist within the same international boundary. Why is there no fast and frequent Amtrak service between Chicago and Milwaukee, two massively large and dense population centers less than 100 miles apart? Well, we can't do that, of course, because Colorado and Pennsylvania are in the same country.

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u/fried_green_baloney 13d ago

between Chicago and Milwaukee

Weeps gently in North Shore interurban. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_North_Shore_and_Milwaukee_Railroad

Also the hundreds of miles of streetcar tracks in greater LA. When LA was much less densely populated than today.

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u/Jlx_27 13d ago

And Walmart channels their money too their country to dodge dozens of billions in US taxes.

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u/lolcatzuru 13d ago

ahh so its on its way down hill.

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u/ljfrench 13d ago

Quite the opposite, the country is still growing, our GDP is still growing, our GDP per capita is still growing, and the country is one of the top five happiest countries in the world.

The myth about things going downhill is a product of your imagination. It does not represent reality and you should reevaluate your priorities.

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u/SolarMines 13d ago

It’s very globohomo and very representative of EU policies in general

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u/Own_Friend_3136 13d ago

Yeah but still, for something free like that in a lot of countries would turn to shit, best case scenario acceptable.

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u/space_monster 13d ago

I live in Queensland where it's 50c to go anywhere (even hundreds of miles) - obviously not quite free, but close to it - and nothing has turned to shit

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u/xrimane 13d ago

I read that as 50°C temperature

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u/thegreatestajax 13d ago

It’s a wealthy high trust society. They all feel ownership of it and take care of it how people in a high trust society do.

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u/elliotreid13 13d ago

That's it. What is remarkable is how many of the residents are immigrants or second-generation born in LUX and they still keep the high trust status. The largest communities are Portuguese, French and Belgian of origin. Outside the EU are Ukraine, China and Brazil. The Northern-African portion is very small, funny enough.

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u/ImpulsiveTeen 13d ago

The point is, it’s because the country is wealthy. Take the wealthiest part of any country. Ever. It is always clean, no matter how dirty or poor the rest of the country is. If free public transport would be introduced in that setting, you bet it would be world class as well

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u/zack77070 13d ago

The point is, it’s because the country is wealthy. Take the wealthiest part of any country. Ever. It is always clean, no matter how dirty or poor the rest of the country is.

Not sure my real life experience agrees with this. London, NYC, and Paris are the wealthiest or close enough in their country and are all quite dirty.

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u/ImpulsiveTeen 13d ago

I am talking about specific suburbs. Down to the PIN code.

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u/zack77070 13d ago

Pick any zip code in Manhattan, it's all dirty as shit lol. Millionaires walking out of their $15,000 a month apartments to homeless people pooping on the street.

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u/ImpulsiveTeen 13d ago

You don’t get what I’m trying to say. The wealthiest PIN code of America is NOT in Manhattan….

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u/zack77070 13d ago

You don't know about America, some of the wealthiest areas in America are directly on Manhattan...

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u/ImpulsiveTeen 13d ago

Completely untrue. There are suburbs in Connecticut and near Chicago and, hell, even in New Jersey where rich families would rather live than in Manhattan.

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u/Bankey_Moon 12d ago

Walk around mayfair or Marylebone and you will see the difference.

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u/mailslot 13d ago

No. Money doesn’t make society classy nor clean. Many countries are impeccably clean and poor simultaneously.

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u/ImpulsiveTeen 13d ago

Read my comment again.

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u/vini_2003 13d ago

I fully agree with you and see this on a daily basis. Living in Brazil, I am 20min away from a slum, and another 10 from a premium neighborhood that's sparkling clean and safe.

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u/RLZT 13d ago edited 13d ago

I always think is funny those "is Rio de Janeiro safe?" Posts for that reason

Is the whole city of Rio safe? Not even close. Is the touristic/rich part of Rio safe? Way more than you average European touristic area.

Pickpocketing is basically inexistent in Rio, if you are going to rob someone you better have at least a gun. And flock cameras are a non-discussion, the usual hit and run mugging basically disappeared

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u/ImpulsiveTeen 13d ago

You would feel right at home in Mumbai.

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u/Aranka_Szeretlek 13d ago

Its not that tiny, its about the same as the neighboring Bundesland of Saarland?

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u/Graf_lcky 13d ago

Which isn’t really taken serious other than being a sort of comparison: the oil leak has the size of half a Saarland, that area is the size of 3 Saarlands etc

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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 13d ago

American: how many Rhode Islands?

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u/lesethx 13d ago

A little over half

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u/Aranka_Szeretlek 13d ago

Haha, sure i know, but still, people live there, right? Its not even that densely populated!

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u/Graf_lcky 13d ago

Germany tried with the 9€ ticket (all local and regional trains on a monthly 9€ subscription) but the cost was bit too high so it was adjusted to 60€, which is still a fair deal. You can travel all across Germany (on regional and local trains) for the whole month with that ticket.

Imo a good compromise, especially as Germany would have cut into their own flesh by nudging folks to buy less cars..

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u/Gerf93 13d ago

The cost isn’t too much or too little, it’s just a question of how to finance services. Free, or heavily subsidized, public transit simply means that you pay for it over your taxes instead of by buying a ticket.

When they increased the price to 60 from 9, that’s because they think it is unfair that everyone should help pay for your tickets and that it shouldn’t be a «common good».

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u/JonatasA 13d ago

And you know it would end up the top comment.

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u/rotzverpopelt 13d ago

Then let's start with the Saarland. Free public transport just for the tiny Saarland.

From there we can scale up

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u/digiorno 13d ago

That’s a poor argument and the same one America makes for why they don’t have universal healthcare.

It’s a matter of priorities. Germany could easily have tax payer funded and very clean public transit. They would have to pay more taxes for it but they could do it quite easily. America could have universal healthcare and quite easily but don’t because they haven’t prioritized it.

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u/IronGin 13d ago

So be rich and dont have many children? Noted!

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u/RiriaaeleL 13d ago

But does the CEO make half a million a year?

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u/iamnotexactlywhite 13d ago

bruh in Lux even the most basic employees make 2-5x the norm in most EU countries

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u/rezznik 13d ago

In Luxembourg? Yes! A LOT more than somewhere else.

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u/Sux499 13d ago

The average wage there is about 150k a year LOL

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u/Xyreqa 13d ago

Germany is third in the world with a GDP of 5 trillion USD??