Article: The Largest Free Mass Transit Experiment in the World

[ozbob]

Atlantic Cities

The Largest Free Mass Transit Experiment in the World

The Largest Free Mass Transit Experiment in the World

    Sulev Vedler
    Jan 29, 2014

TALLINN, Estonia — Last January, Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, did something that no other city its size had done before: It made all public transit in the city free for residents.

City officials made some bold predictions about what would result. There would be a flood of new passengers on Tallinn's buses and trams — as many as 20 percent more riders. Carbon emissions would decline substantially as drivers left their cars at home and rode transit instead. And low-income residents would gain new access to jobs that they previously couldn't get to. As Mayor Edgar Savisaar likes to say, zeroing out commuting costs was for some people as good as receiving a 13th month of salary.

One year later, this city of 430,000 people has firmly established itself as the leader of a budding international free-transit movement. Tallinn has hosted two conferences for city officials, researchers and journalists from across Europe to discuss the idea. The city has an English-language website devoted to its experiment. And promotional materials have proclaimed Tallinn the "capital of free public transport."

The idea has been very popular with Tallinners. In an opinion poll, nine out of ten people said they were happy with how it's going. Pille Saks is one of them. "I like free rides," says Saks, a 29 year-old secretary who goes to work by bus. "I have a car, but I don't like to drive with it, especially in the winter when there is a lot of snow and roads are icy." ...

More --> http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2014/01/largest-free-transit-experiment-world/8231/

[SurfRail]

From the last budget figures I looked at, operational costs not directly related to the provision of services (ie back end stuff like planning, staff wages etc) were about 6% of the total budget - farebox recovery pays for about 4x that.

[SurfRail]

^ Specifically, the current fare pricing path was meant to get it down to 70% subsidy or less, which has failed.

[HappyTrainGuy]

Given that there were a large amount of people affected by the 2011 floods and it was the holidays during the free PT week the Northside still had good loadings mainly due to the fact that it was hardly touched (it flooded first at Strathpine-Sunny Coast in various places ie rivers/low laying areas but everything was still open and operating like normal while the city was shut down).

Services were also faster due to everyone getting on and off buses faster.