As a recent piece from The Scottish Socialist Party (republished in Canada's Socialist Project Bullet) noted, there are a number of reason free transit is an idea whose time has come. While these points reference Scotland and the UK they apply more broadly and, indeed, globally:
This page offers links to articles about and resources in favour of free transit.
- Free fares would be the biggest single pro-environment policy enacted by any national government anywhere on the planet, dramatically slashing car use and CO2 emissions.
- Free fares would be the biggest anti-poverty, pro-social inclusion policy enacted in Scotland, or anywhere else in the UK. It is mainly people on low incomes who rely on public transport
- Free fares would cut the number of road accidents, reducing human suffering and relieving pressure on the NHS and the emergency services. The Scottish Executive estimates that road accidents cost £1.4-billion a year to the Scottish economy. (On an average day in Scotland there is one fatal road accident; another 8-10 involving serious injury; and 250-300 minor accidents. The vast majority involve cars.)
- Free fares would be help to reduce the levels of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, which have risen steeply in line with the expansion of road traffic
- Free fares would potentially increase the spending power of over a million workers by between £40 and £100 a month, boosting the overall economy.
- Free fares would increase business efficiency and productivity: the CBI estimates that traffic congestion costs business across Britain between £15 and £20-billion a year.
- Free fares would be a major tourist attraction, bringing hundreds of millions of pounds into the Scottish economy every year from increased visitor numbers. An increase in tourism of just 20 per cent would bring an extra £1-billion into the Scottish economy.
- Free fares would attract worldwide support, especially from the global environmental movement, and would bring pressure to bear on governments throughout Europe and the wider world to adopt a similar policy.
- Free fares would reduce Scotland’s reliance on depleting oil reserves; 67 per cent of all oil produced globally is used for transport.
It is an evolving page and document, so if you have articles/links that you think should be shared here please send them to theleftchapter@outlook.com or post them in the comments.
Free Transit Resources and Links
Every year the same line is trotted out by the TTC and various civic politicians in Toronto with the damage done monetarily always increasing from 20 to 40 to now allegedly over $60 million a year. Fare evasion, they say, is a serious problem and then they tsk-tsk about the "cheaters" and the need for more enforcement and get to shift the narrative of blame about the TTC's woes from themselves and decades of mismanagement, incompetence and underfunding to those mean and nasty freeloaders, i.e. TTC riders themselves.
On January 1, 2013, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, became the largest city in the world to make mass transit free for its residents. While the effects of having done this are, of course, specific to the context of the city itself, it has shown that a major city can do it and that it has been widely popular with its residents. It has also focused attention on a growing international movement of groups, activists and parties who feel that free mass transit in major urban areas is an important social and environmental goal to be worked towards in the near future.
Video: The Fight for Fare Free Transit:
"Presentations by:
- Kamilla Pietrzyk of the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly's Free and Accessible Transit Campaign
- Ward 6 Socialist city council candidate Michael Laxer, who is campaigning for Free Transit
Topics of discussion included:
- Is fare free transit possible in Toronto?
- What would be the social benefits of such a transit policy?
- How would free transit benefit the suburbs and Etobicoke?
- What can we learn from the free transit experiment in Tallinn, Estonia?"
But socialists should also use this opportunity to ask why anyone in New York – or anywhere else – should have to pay a fare to use the subways. It’s time to claim public transportation as a basic right – a service that should be available to all people, and fully funded not through fares but through progressive taxation of the city’s wealthy businesses and individuals.
Luxembourg to become first country to make all public transport free
Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all its public transport free.
Fares on trains, trams and buses will be lifted next summer under the plans of the re-elected coalition government led by Xavier Bettel, who was sworn in for a second term as prime minister on Wednesday.
CLIMATE/JUSTICE: No Fare is Fair:
Luxembourg is set to become the first country in the world to make all its public transport free.
Fares on trains, trams and buses will be lifted next summer under the plans of the re-elected coalition government led by Xavier Bettel, who was sworn in for a second term as prime minister on Wednesday.
CLIMATE/JUSTICE: No Fare is Fair:
Solidarity Ottawa has launched a campaign to get Ottawa to join the more than 100 cities around the world that offer free public transit. The experience of those cities shows that eliminating fares drastically increases ridership, which leads to expanded service and improved quality of service. The jump in the number of riders also cuts down on one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases: cars.
“Car nation” Germany has surprised neighbours with a radical proposal to reduce road traffic by making public transport free, as Berlin scrambles to meet EU air pollution targets and avoid big fines.
The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is a proud advocate of a world-class, fare-free public transport system for Scotland.
Public transit is a public good. The city and the province should consider something more substantial than a little discount for selected suburban riders. Let’s get serious about investing in mobility. How about making the TTC free on Sundays? Or after 7 p.m.? Or…all the time?
With an aging, dwindling population, and polluted air, something needed to change in Dunkirk, France. So when Patrice Vergriete became mayor of the post-industrial city by the sea in 2014, he promised to make public transportation totally free.
Epochal crises allow us to see clearly the irrationalities of capitalism, notably its systematic inability to develop to the fullest human capacities and provide the basis for sustainable and respectful relationships to the rest of nature. The current world economic crisis has thrown to the dustbin of history the aspirations and capacities of millions of human beings – those laid off, driven off the land or relegated to permanent precariousness. At the same time, the crisis has intensified the exploitation of those still connected to gainful employment and driven up, at least temporarily, the ecologically destructive extraction of ‘resources,’ particularly in the global South and the peripheral areas of the global North.
Jeremy Corbyn pledges free bus travel for under-25s
Labour says it would give under-25s in England free bus travel in areas where local councils bring services back into public ownership as the party wants.
TTC fare fallacies -- Neoliberal delusions in transit costing:
The start of the 2018 election season is nearing and fanciful neoliberal narratives about transit fares and the TTC are in full swing.
Jeremy Corbyn pledges free bus travel for under-25s
Labour says it would give under-25s in England free bus travel in areas where local councils bring services back into public ownership as the party wants.
TTC fare fallacies -- Neoliberal delusions in transit costing:
The start of the 2018 election season is nearing and fanciful neoliberal narratives about transit fares and the TTC are in full swing.
If we do not change now, and if we do not take action, however hard and initially unpopular with some, the planet will ultimately force us to anyway. Then it will be too late, and making it more affordable for someone to drive, by themselves, wherever and whenever they want will seem a supremely misguided fantasy of a terribly decadent past.
At times it seems that while generally claiming to believe that climate change is an existential threat that we must confront, many social democrats appear to be totally unwilling to accept the reality of what kind of steps need to be taken to do something about it.
Free and Accessible Transit Now: Toward A Red-Green Vision for Toronto
Transit is a critical issue for many people in Toronto, as in all major urban areas. More is at stake than reducing traffic congestion and gridlock. Transit and general mobility are intimately related to larger issues in capitalist society: how goods and services are produced and delivered; the location of and nature of jobs; where and how we live and travel; issues of class, inequality and oppression related to race, age, gender, and sexuality; climate justice; and the very shape and nature of our democratic institutions.
Free transit opens the door to a broader transformation of urban life and the current social system. Our ‘Red-Green’ vision is socialist, based on the working class, environmentally just, internationalist, and transformative.
Free Transit in Ottawa
Halting and reversing climate change requires radical action on many fronts. One of the most important and easiest to address is transportation. Cars and trucks are the biggest cause and fastest growing source of greenhouse gases. In Ontario, transportation accounts for 34 per cent of the province’s carbon footprint. Any serious effort to reduce greenhouse gases has to focus on a rapid shift away from cars to public transit. Switching from a car to a standard bus immediately reduces greenhouse gases by two-thirds per trip.
Rethinking Ottawa’s Transit System
There are over 100 municipalities worldwide in which transit is free, with notable examples including Dunkirk, France and Tallinn, Estonia. In addition to being an egalitarian social policy, making transit free to users has the potential to dramatically increase ridership and thereby help to reduce carbon emissions, air pollution, and congestion in the city.
Free transit movements are gaining traction in both Ottawa and Toronto, largely because they have the potential to address both social inequality and environmental sustainability.
How to Stop Fare Evasion: Make NYC’s Trains & Buses Free
Imagine a transit system where there are no turnstiles, where the police presence is minimal because cops aren’t lurking around to enforce fares. Picture a subway and bus network that is free, open and functional because those who profit most from it pay for it.
News:
Luxembourg becomes first country in world to provide free public transport
'Get on and go!' No bus fare needed anymore on Olympia transit system
Germany cuts fares for long-distance rail travel in response to climate crisis
KANSAS CITY CHOOSES FREE PUBLIC TRANSIT
The Socialist Party wants free public transportation in Brussels by 2024
German cities to trial free public transport to cut pollution
Public transit should be free, Victoria council says
Climate Activists Demand Free, Expanded Public Transit System
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