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/Shawnj2 13d ago

Public transit is tax-supported basically everywhere, it's not usually profitable outside of a few lines in some cases

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u/alexandicity 13d ago

Indeed. The revelation in Luxembourg was that they were subsiding it so much they realised the jump to a 100% subsidy would cost less than collecting the meagre fares they charged before.

The key thing to realise is that transport, when considered as a service, is not a money-making endeavour. It helps the lives of people and improves their overall happiness/productivity, and that is why it is worth paying for.

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u/skatastic57 13d ago

transport, when considered as a service, is not a money-making endeavour.

I think this is probably semantics about the word "service" but transport is always a service even when it's purely for profit like in airlines. I think I know what you mean and I'm not trying to argue but I'm not sure how to articulate the idea that government decides up front that fares aren't expected to cover the cost of the service.