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Re: Luxembourg Becomes First Country to Make All Public Transit Free

Posted by Dupont Circle Station on Tue Jun 25 13:04:37 2019, in response to Luxembourg Becomes First Country to Make All Public Transit Free, posted by https://salaamallah.com/ on Thu Jun 20 16:45:22 2019.

A few points:
  • The news is from late 2018 or early this year.
  • Estonia was the first country to introduce free transit last year (after free service in Talinn starting in 2013)
  • Luxembourg's public transit infrastructure is in a state comparable to NYC's in the early 1990s. Massive investment is needed to bring it to SOGR and reliable service.
  • Luxembourg has the highest per-capita car ownership in the EU. The wealthy will continue driving, relegating the less-wealthy and poor to the unreliable, albeit free, public transit.

Luxembourg is a seat of power in the EU. The government has substantial financial resources at its disposal. Unless they are made to understand the importance of investing in their infrastructure for the long-haul, free transit will be meaningless. If they think it will decrease the number of automobiles or trips by automobile in its present condition they are sadly mistaken.

As a transit advocate and policy wonk, I say create demand pricing zones to discourage cars in them during certain hours or entirely. Lockbox that revenue exclusively for infrastructure. Scale-up automobile registration fees over x-years and lockbox that revenue. Build demand for service. Tart-up maintaining the infrastructure so companies and investors want to throw themselves at it. Public works projects used to be sexy to investors, then the 80s and 90s happened: They were maligned simply for being longer-term, not "Mo money, mo fast!"

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