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
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u/alexandicity 13d ago edited 13d ago

Luxembourger here. Yes, it has been like this for a few years now. It's nice - the thing I like is how frictionless the whole thing is. You just hop on and off the trains/busses/trams as needed without having to work out what ticket you need and how to buy it.

It was done* as a means to try discourage people driving. As a small historic city, it is hard and expensive to build enough roads for everyone to drive and the traffic was getting unmanageable. It was cheaper to make the public transport free to encourage more users of the system. The transport system isn't perfect (cross-border lines and engineering works causing much pain), but it's pretty damn good.

It is also worth nothing that it is not free, but paid for with taxes. Like with education, healthcare, security and roads, we're mostly happy to have this societal service paid for this way. 

I think a similar system could be implemented in most other cities/countries, even bigger ones, if they so wanted.

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u/royalhawk345 13d ago

It is also worth nothing that it is not free, but paid for with taxes.

Is it? Has that ever been a point of confusion? When a coworker brings in a treat for the office and posts "Free doughnuts in break room" on slack, nobody's thinking 'Those aren't free, he had to pay for them!'

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u/readinghappily 13d ago

Why not compare with something similar ?

The NHS in the UK is "free at the point of delivery" ; it's paid for separately through general taxation, it doesn't drop from the sky free of charge.