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Free Public Transport for All

Colesman Ballz

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Dec 28, 2014
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14,817
Rail, Tram and Bus travel is to become free for all as from July next year ! I kid you not, but sadly this is being introduced by the new Luxembourg Coalition Government, and not the UK, where the next round of rail fare rises has been announced, and by hopping on a London Bus you will still be subsidising the Paris Metro !

Now if you want to get people out of their cars, surely this is the way to do it, rather than to price them off the road ?
 

iscalad

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Aug 22, 2007
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Far away across the field
How would this be paid for?
 

manc grecian

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Jun 24, 2004
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following through
Higher taxation
 

Colesman Ballz

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Dec 28, 2014
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14,817
Higher taxation
Ironically doing away with existing commuter tax breaks, will partly fund the scheme, plus of course doing away with the ticketing system and collection of fares will also help. The existing system is already highly subsidised. It costs a billion euros a year to run, but because of concessionary fares generates only 30M euros in ticket receipts. Maybe there is EU funding involved ? It is certainly a novel way to tackle congestion and drive down Co2 emissions. Time will tell how effective it is.
 

iscalad

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Aug 22, 2007
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Far away across the field
Higher taxation
Politically unacceptable.
 

Swanaldo

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May 3, 2005
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Fair and transparent pricing would encourage me to use the train. It should be (for example) 25p a mile across the board, the busier routes would naturally subsidise the less-used lines.
 

StroudGrecian

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Mar 27, 2007
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Never done this before
I believe Luxembourg has other ways of raising revenue.
 

mfcrocker

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Sep 29, 2004
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But I know we'll meet again, some sunny day...
Politically unacceptable.
Perhaps at the moment, but I think views on this are shifting somewhat. People want better public services and are more willing to pay.

I've thought for a while now we need to offer universal free public transport to make headway on climate change. I love this idea.
 

Swanaldo

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May 3, 2005
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I believe Luxembourg has other ways of raising revenue.
eBay's tax bill must be worth a quid or two to them.
 

Hants_red

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May 27, 2007
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61,990
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League 1
I just want the trains to stop at St James Park. ;(
 
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