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Free county public transport lines will be abolished, a new government coalition has announced. This message caused different reactions among the people. Someone is outraged that now you need to look for additional money in a skinny family wallet.
On the contrary, someone took this news with enthusiasm: now there will finally be no crowding on the 31st bus on the Narva-Narva-Jõesuu route in the summer! But the decision to cancel tickets for 0 euros does not in itself guarantee comfort for passengers. And if you think about it, it does not guarantee the development of public transport.
Started in 2017, an experiment to introduce free inter-county buses from the very beginning caused a lot of criticism and gloomy predictions, which almost completely came true. Back in 2021, the State Audit Office stated that none of those who used to travel to work by car switched to public transport, although reducing the number of personal transport was one of the goals of introducing free buses.
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“Completely free public transport is a nice thing, but absolutely inefficient.
Free county transport bankrupted commercial carriers. In particular, flights of the 123rd minibus between Narva and Narva-Jõesuu were stopped in Narva. On the other hand, the number of passengers on free buses has indeed increased, and so much so that it has become uncomfortable to ride in them, but this can hardly be considered an achievement.
However, now there may be such a situation that even after the abolition of free buses, they will not become much more accessible. After all, the number of flights will continue to depend on the amount of state funding for public transport.
Now, as you know, the future coalition decides how to close holes in the budget, and one of the options is to reduce spending on public transport. At the same time, ticket prices may turn out to be much higher than before the introduction of free county transport in 2017, which, of course, will not please passengers either.
And the sense of social justice of many people is offended by the fact that for Tallinners public transport will still be free, although the average salary in Tallinn is much higher than, say, in Ida-Virumaa. And if it is difficult for the state to find 50-70 million euros for public transport, it is not a problem for Tallinn to find 120 million euros for the current year.
On the other hand, the number of private cars has not only not decreased over the ten years of existence of free transport in Tallinn, but, on the contrary, has increased. Which clearly proves that completely free public transport is a thing, perhaps a pleasant one, but absolutely inefficient.
But I would not want the abolition of “transport communism” to be as ill-conceived as its introduction. Routes should become more convenient, the frequency of flights should become more dense. Only in this case, the majority of passengers will not regret the free transport.
The post Free buses or paid comfort first appeared on gazeta.ee.