Germany considers making public transport free to fight air pollution

[Gorgus]

[QUOTE]The German government is considering several measures for improving the quality of air in major cities, including making all inner city public transport free to use.
The potential measures come as a response to the threat of legal action from the EU over the fact that German air quality still does not meet EU-prescribed standards.

News that Germany is considering such a dramatic change in public transport policy comes from a leaked letter sent by three government ministries to the EU. The letter, seen by the German Press Agency (DPA), states that the intended consequence of making transport free at the point of use is that it would reduce the number of cars on the roads of German cities.

No German city currently offers free public transport. The proposal foresees that the federal government would support local governments financially if they were to take it upon themselves to offer free public transport.

The leaked proposal was met with immediate criticism from the Association of Transport Companies (VDV), which pointed out that transport companies currently generate around half of their turnover through ticket sales.

“We are very sceptical about this plan,” a spokeswoman said. “In the end, the taxpayer will have to finance it.”

The spokeswoman noted that the companies would also need to buy new buses and trains and also hire new staff to cope with the predicted spike in demand.[/QUOTE]

Source: [url]https://www.thelocal.de/20180213/germany-considers-making-public-transport-free-to-fight-air-pollution[/url]
Alternative Source: [url]http://www.dw.com/en/germany-considering-free-public-transportation-to-take-on-air-pollution/a-42574053[/url]

[Ganerumo]

Not necessarily a bad idea although I don't know how good public transports are in Germany.

[Zombinie]

Certainly interesting, but I wouldn't buy into it until they specify where the necessary funding will come from. Increased taxes overall? How much does that translate to on an individual taxpayer basis? If not, what areas would they be spending less on to redistribute that funding?

[ImCrimson]

If if we're hoping to get car-free cities by 2035 or whatever, this will be the absolute minimum requirement.

[coup]

[QUOTE=Zombinie;53130260]Certainly interesting, but I wouldn't buy into it until they specify where the necessary funding will come from. Increased taxes overall? How much does that translate to on an individual taxpayer basis? If not, what areas would they be spending less on to redistribute that funding?[/QUOTE]

I would also like to see how much revenue they actually get from public transportation. If its not a lot, then this sounds like an easy decision to make.

[PyroCF]

Coal is German's main source of electricity, maybe they can start there.

[jonoPorter]

Yes and put people like me that are responsible for fining fair evaders out of jobs, sounds great. /s

[Mitsuma]

All the municipalities are already saying it won't happen, at least not in short time.
Would be nice if I could save the 111€ for half a year student ticket here.
(Then again, I'm only forced to pay for it because of the greedy public transport company to begin with.)

Probably won't be cheap to get this through.

[Kaido]

The Estonian capital Tallinn also has free public transport. The way it's set up in Tallinn, is that you must be registred as a resident of Tallinn to use the free public transport, which nets in around 1000€ of income tax to the city. Though the main goal of it has failed, since they wanted to reduce the number of cars traveling in the city yet it has increased.
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/11/tallinn-experiment-estonia-public-transport-free-cities[/url]

[ImCrimson]

[QUOTE=Drag#!;53130533]The Estonian capital Tallinn also has free public transport. The way it's set up in Tallinn, is that you must be registred as a resident of Tallinn to use the free public transport, which nets in around 1000€ of income tax to the city. Though the main goal of it has failed, since they wanted to reduce the number of cars traveling in the city yet it has increased.
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/11/tallinn-experiment-estonia-public-transport-free-cities[/url][/QUOTE]

I can see why. Cars for personal transportation is just too convenient, you can't put that genie back in the bottle. Banning cars and providing free substitutes is the only way we'd ever achieve that. Not saying we should, but cars will never go away on their own.

[Grocel]

I'm all for it, but please don't skimp on the necessary vehicles, maintenance and personal or you end up like our pseudo modern schools here in Germany with broken AMD Athlon x64 Computers and no dedicated administrators to maintain them.

Sadly tax driven services, especially in Germany, are infamous for being disappointing or done half-hearted sometimes.

[Maestra Fénix]

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;53130239]Not necessarily a bad idea although I don't know how good public transports are in Germany.[/QUOTE]

They are very good, all the cities and towns which I visited have at least a well connected bus transit, and a lot have trams and metros ( or if not, defined trails so the bikes don't go into the road ). But the thing is that most of them are private so IDK until what point they are going to accept them "going out of business".

Hope we see it one day, is a must for our future.

[SIRIUS]

[QUOTE=jonoPorter;53130496]Yes and put people like me that are responsible for fining fair evaders out of jobs, sounds great. /s[/QUOTE]

Yeah, charging people to use transit to keep your job is a much better idea /s

[awcmon]

[QUOTE=jonoPorter;53130496]Yes and put people like me that are responsible for fining fair evaders out of jobs, sounds great. /s[/QUOTE]

maybe you could get a job as a bus driver then

[ignhelper]

Tourists still gotta pay right

[Kecske]

This was massively overplayed by the media as it seems:
[QUOTE]But faced with a barrage of questions from reporters about how the ticketless travel would be funded and which towns would benefit first, officials were at pains to stress that there were no concrete projects on the table yet and that no test cities had been chosen.

"The municipalities would have to come to us with the proposal of free local public transport, and then we would see if it's feasible."

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman stressed that the eye-catching measure was just one of many under consideration as Berlin tries to avoid being hauled before the European Court of Justice for breaching EU limits on harmful nitrogen oxides and fine particles in its cities' air.

"We are in a process of dialogue with the European Commission. They asked us for a list of measures... and that's what we gave them," said Steffen Seibert.

The officials made no mention of how the proposed free travel would be paid for.

And while the letter to Brussels lists five pilot cities, none of them are currently considering any projects involving free travel, Haufe said.[/QUOTE]

[url]https://www.thelocal.de/20180214/government-plays-down-free-public-transport-plan?utm_source=mandiner&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mandiner_201802[/url]

So far this is just a bullet point in a list sent to the EC, without any federal level plan or incentive. And I really don't see municipial governments lining up to volunteer for the idea. Its just not happening.

[norfside noddie]

That would've been a dream come true in my time as an apprentice. I had to pay 130€ a month to get to my job and I only earned little over 300€ a month.

[Instant Mix]

[QUOTE=PyroCF;53130414]Coal is German's main source of electricity, maybe they can start there.[/QUOTE]

good thing they decided to not use nuclear from now on and shut down all nuclear power plants

smart one, lads

[HazzaHardie]

Be great if public transport was free in UK, trains are insanely expensive

[Taipan]

Great idea. This does work and will be good for the economy due to reducing traffic jams. To provide a case study:

In The Netherlands Public transport in the whole country is free for students after high school(College, Uni, Vocational). Due to this, students generally dont have cars until after they graduate, or even keep using public transport after, because they are so used to it. This all greatly reduces rush hour traffic.

It also solves the student housing problem in city's. As it becomes cheaper to live at home/Live outside the city.

However, due to this. You can always recognize student housing by the massive amount of shitty bicycles outside:

[IMG]http://hagazinevroeger.nl/denhaag/milieu/gevelstallingklein1006.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://www.studenten.net/images/default-source/article-images/wonen/fietsen-studentenhuis.jpg?sfvrsn=0[/IMG]

[fruxodaily]

I normally recognise student housing by how much it stinks of weed

[CruelAddict]

[QUOTE=Drag#!;53130533]The Estonian capital Tallinn also has free public transport. The way it's set up in Tallinn, is that you must be registred as a resident of Tallinn to use the free public transport, which nets in around 1000€ of income tax to the city. Though the main goal of it has failed, since they wanted to reduce the number of cars traveling in the city yet it has increased.
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/11/tallinn-experiment-estonia-public-transport-free-cities[/url][/QUOTE]

It will keep increasing due to our commutes being not heavy with traffic jams as well as thanks to economic growth. Having a car in Tallinn is just too convenient.