Is almost free in the metros, trams but also trains a good idea?
To encourage people to use public transport rather than their car, some countries such as Austria and Luxembourg have launched low-cost annual cards allowing unlimited use of metros, trams and trains.
Encouraging people to take public transport rather than the car is now the objective of all governments in order to reduce the carbon footprint of cars.
To achieve this, there are several means: strengthening the offer, developing green equipment and of course playing on prices. Some cities in France (50 by 2026) are free (global or subject to criteria). But whole countries apply them a quasi-free on a large scale.
This is the case of Luxemburgof Switzerland which is trying to set it up, or of Austria which launched the “Klimaticket“. Presented by the green government as “a revolution”, this card must be a lever for the country to achieve carbon neutrality in 2040.
Conditions to be fulfilled
The principle is simple: sold for 1095 euros for one year (about 3 euros per day), it allows access to all (national) trains, buses, trams and metros (in Vienna) in the country, at will. Whether the operators are public or private.
In addition to the price argument, Austria highlights the practicality of this offer. “We no longer need to ask ourselves the question: how am I going to buy my ticket? Can I buy it on the bus or do I have to buy it before boarding?” , explains Leonore Gewessler, Minister of the Environment.
Seems to be a success since last November, 130,000 cards have been sold (the country has 8 million inhabitants).
Obviously, this approach requires compensating for the loss in revenue of public and private transport operators. Vienna thus plans to invest at least 150 million euros per year to compensate these players.
Another condition for the success of this offer is the network. Here again, Austria is not doing things by halves with an investment in rail infrastructure of 2 billion euros in order to bring rural areas closer together.
“False good idea”
Still, this approach divides. Is it really effective and is it not a risk for the essential financing of the networks? For Arnaud Aymé, transport specialist for the firm Sia Conseil, “it’s a false good idea”.
“It is still too early to draw an assessment or feedback from these large-scale offers, but I am quite cautious, he whispers to BFM Business. What are the objectives we are setting ourselves if not to win the next election?
“The question is to know what free travel answers. Is it because of the prices that people do not consume the train? Given that it is heavily subsidized by the States, regions or communities and that there is aid for low-income households, I don’t think it’s this reason that is a brake”, he explains.
In reality, in most cases, if people do not consume the train, it is because it is not accessible. Small lines and small stations have been closed in many European networks, forcing users to turn back to their cars.
“The price drop does not change this, confirms Arnaud Aymé. And if the price is an obstacle, free or almost free makes sense, but in a targeted way”.
Drying up of public funding
Worse, this approach would be counterproductive because “it dries up public funding which will be dedicated to compensating operators” rather than spending on networks, particularly secondary ones, of fine services, precisely essential to recreate the possibility of taking the train .
“We risk the impoverishment of public transport when it takes ‘more of everything’ to reduce the weight of the car”, estimates the specialist. Especially since the costs can increase due to a sharp increase in attendance while requiring the resources available through the elimination of tariff revenue.
However, in the case of Switzerland, Luxembourg or Austria, it is precisely the power, performance and finesse of the network that make it possible to set up these offers. And the small geographical size of these countries.
Switzerland, Austria: countries where the train is already very powerful
“There is a very fine mesh, a real coherence at all levels between the, the operators, the authorities”, reminds us Bruno Gazeau, president of the Fnaut, the national federation of associations of transport users.
“This is the first condition. These cards answer the question of pricing, but the performance of public transport takes precedence. This should not be done to the detriment of investments”, adds Valentin Desfontaines, Sustainable Mobility Manager of the France Climate Action Network.
Another strong characteristic, the strong appetite for the train. “In Switzerland, which is a real model of the rail market, the rate of use of trains is 4 to 5 times higher than in France. So there is no risk of impoverishment of public transport”, adds the expert.
Could we see such an offer in France? None of the conditions seem met both in terms of use (10% of global trips) and network and even less organization “where the regions that operate the TER apply their prices, their investments without really talking with their neighbors” underlines Bruno Gazeau. “There are maps everywhere, at the national, regional level… consistency is needed and this is not the case”.
Results still difficult to assess
“The first challenge is to develop the offer. This is the main lever for increasing traffic”, adds Valentin Desfontaines. “We are not defending free but rather social pricing, a more equitable one. Flat-rate offers must be targeted and socially coherent”.
Finally, what about the ecological results of such measures, which are the primary objective of these measures. Does free, almost free public transport really allow a modal relationship from the car to clean transport?
Hard to say at the moment. “Attractive and possible in theory, an approach calculating all the effects of free CO2 is more complex in practice since free transport is often combined with other measures, in particular network improvement. If the direct effects of free public transport in favor of ecology seem debatable, the Observatory of free transport cities proposes to identify others, indirect and measurable in the longer term. presents the most probable ecological interest”, analyze the Jean Jaurès Foundation.
“As a political and social construction, the ecological dimension of free transport cannot be attributed in the short term, nor solely under the prism of pricing”, she continues.
Virtually free transport cards, how does it work?
>>> Klimaticket (Austria)
-Price: 1095 euros per year (821 euros for young people and seniors)
-Transport covered: trains, buses, public and private transport trams
>>> Free Mobility (Luxembourg)
-Price: 75 euros per month or 660 euros per year (applies to all users, whether residents, cross-border workers or tourists)
-Covered transport: trams, trains or buses