Luxembourg to make public transport free

Luxembourg is to become the first country in the world to allow free travel for everyone on public transport.
December 11, 2018 Read time: 1 min

The tiny European country’s coalition government, which was re-elected last week, has pledged to scrap fares on trains, trams and buses by the beginning of 2020.

The capital, Luxembourg City, has 110,000 residents – but another 400,000 commute in for work. This means that congestion is a major problem, with research suggesting that city drivers spent an average of 33 hours in traffic jams in 2016.

The Guardian newspaper says that free transport for every child and young person under the age of 20 has been in place since the summer, while secondary school students can use free shuttles between school and home.

US senator – and former presidential candidate – Bernie Sanders, welcomed the government’s decision, tweeting: “Congratulations to Luxembourg for taking the important step of making their public transportation free. At a time when scientists are warning us that we must take immediate and aggressive action to curb our carbon pollution emissions, public transit is already an excellent way to give people the option to get out of their cars and into buses and trains.”

Earlier this year, Estonia announced that it was flirting with the idea of free public transport nationwide, after implementing it in the capital, Tallinn.

 

Urban Traffic Control

Related Content

  • Asfinag displays Unterwegs service for traffic and weather conditions
    October 22, 2012
    Asfinag, the Austrian motorway operator, is showing its full service portfolio in the areas of traffic information as well as traffic management at the ITS World Congress. The company’s Unterwegs service provides current traffic and weather conditions on Austrian motorways and expressways for users whether at home, at work, or on the move. Before leaving the office for the journey home, mini applications and gadgets provide commuters and users of modern operating systems like Windows7, Mac OSX with Asfinag
    Read More
  • Columbus, Ohio is named Smart Cities Dive’s city of 2018
    December 5, 2018
    Columbus, Ohio has been named City of the Year in the Smart Cities Dive website’s awards for its work on transit and electrification. The US city won the US Department of Transportation’s inaugural Smart City Challenge two years ago – and is rolling out a variety of smart city-related programmes. Smart Cities Dive said the city’s “biggest area of progress this year” has been its increased reliance on electric vehicles (EVs), including in its bus fleet and other government vehicles. City authoritie
    Read More
  • Designers explore the future of transport and passenger experience
    May 1, 2013
    Industrial designers from around the world are meeting in London next month to explore the future of transport systems, how to improve the passenger journey from home to destination and how greater integration and connectivity can enhance the transport user experience. Paul Priestman, designer and co-founding director of international design consultancy Priestmangoode will lead the debate in the Wired Transport: Connected trains, planes and automobiles session at the Product Design and Innovation Conference
    Read More
  • Regulation time-lag will hit driverless technology hard says leading consultancy BDO
    August 8, 2018
    The legislation surrounding driverless cars is lagging so far behind the technology involved that the industry is unlikely to see a regulatory framework in place any time soon says leading international business, finance and taxation consultancy BDO. And IEEE, "the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity" can only see problems ahead as the politicians fall further and further behind. BDO has been looking at a report from www.Spectr
    Read More

Highlighted Content