[reece(:]

Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all its public transport free.


Fares on trains, trams and buses will be lifted next summer under the plans of the re-elected coalition government led by Xavier Bettel, who was sworn in for a second term as prime minister on Wednesday.

Bettel, whose Democratic party will form a government with the leftwing Socialist Workers’ party and the Greens, had vowed to prioritise the environment during the recent election campaign.

On top of the transport pledge, the new government is also considering legalising cannabis, and introducing two new public holidays.

Luxembourg City, the capital of the small Grand Duchy, suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion in the world.

It is home to about 110,000 people, but a further 400,000 commute into the city to work. A study suggested that drivers in the capital spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams in 2016.

While the country as a whole has 600,000 inhabitants, nearly 200,000 people living in France, Belgium and Germany cross the border every day to work in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg has increasingly shown a progressive attitude to transport. This summer, the government brought in free transport for every child and young person under the age of 20. Secondary school students can use free shuttles between their institution and their home. Commuters need only pay €2 (£1.78) for up to two hours of travel, which in a country of just 999 sq miles (2,590 sq km) covers almost all journeys.

Now, from the start of 2020 all tickets will be abolished, saving on the collection of fares and the policing of ticket purchases.

The policy is yet to be fully thought through, however. A decision has yet to be taken on what to do about first- and second-class compartments on trains.

Bettel only just scraped back into government in the recent election. Opinion polls before October’s poll had indicated that the Christian Social People’s party (CSV) – led for 19 years by the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker – would end Bettel’s five years as prime minister.

The CSV, however, lost seats, while the Greens gained three seats. The result gave the coalition 31 seats in the 60-seat chamber.

The policy of the new government that has caused the most debate, however, has been that of legalising the purchase, possession and consumption of cannabis for recreational use.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...transport-free

We stan icons

[Denver]

Who is paying for wages and repairs

[Twosugars]

Only way to go to get rid of cars in cities

[Livia]

Originally Posted by reece(:

We stan icons

Per head of capita, Luxembourg uses SIX TIMES more oil than we do.

[arista]

Good trick

[bitontheslide]

its not free obviously, someone is paying for it

[Greg!]

Originally Posted by Livia

Per head of capita, Luxembourg uses SIX TIMES more oil than we do.

Which is probably one of the reasons why they're making public transport free?

[Oliver_W]

Good for them; I just hope it doesn't result in tax rises - they have more sensible taxes than places like Finland and the Scandinavian countries, so I hope they don't ruin it!

[Toy Soldier]

Something needs to be done in Britain to ease traffic, tbh... obviously traffic in London has been a complete joke for a long time now, but it's every major city at this point. With freely flowing traffic it takes me about 45 minutes to get into Glasgow, and an hour to Edinburgh. During rush hour traffic, it's at least double - 1 hour 30 mins for Glasgow... and I've seen it take well over 2 hours for Edinburgh. From around 7.30am there are places along the route that simply grind to a complete halt.

Nothing compared to London of course as I said; we drove down last February and honest to god... I'm never taking a car south of Manchester again . At one point it took us 45 minutes to travel half a mile .

But yeah... anywayz... not sure if completely free public transport would work - but I do think that every major city should have large parking facilities outside the city with regular (and free) trains / trams into the centre. Maybe a token fare like a few £ for all day parking that also gives you access to the transport.

[Toy Soldier]

Oh also Luxemburg is only like 65 miles end to end, even less across, and the capital city is pretty central so really any public transport journey is going to be about 30 miles max... it's a bit easier to make that free than it would be in most countries (where a cross-country train is easily 500 - 1000+ miles)

[montblanc]

as it should be

[MTVN]

It's a nice idea but like TS said obviously easier to implement in a very small, wealthy country where pretty much all journeys are gonna be of a short length

Would probably make services too crowded if it was done here as well