Luxembourg is home to a little over 600,000 residents, with another 214,000 people traveling in every day from the neighboring countries for work and travel. It has just become the first country in the world to make public transportation free.
To cut down on the county’s emissions and help out lower-income earners the country announced that all buses, trains, and trams will now be free with the exception of first-class. It’s estimated that more than half of Luxembourg’s greenhouse gas emissions are from transportation.
Previously commuters were able to purchase an annual pass for 440 euros ($485). Travelers who don’t mind paying and prefer the comfort of first-class will still be able to purchase an annual pass for 660 euros.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBCoo6WcVt8
Transportation Minister Francois Bausch recently told Reuters:
The main reason is to have a better quality of mobility, and then the side reason is clearly also environmental issues. For people with low incomes or the minimum wage, for them, it’s really substantial.
Luxembourg is well known for having frequent traffic jams, with buses being used by around 32% of people to go to work, and 19% taking the trains.
To deal with the challenges faced by climate change and look toward the future, the Luxembourg government is investing 600 euros for every resident each year to build up the country’s public transportation. This includes the construction of a new tram line that will stretch for 16 kilometers from just south of the capital to the airport located north of the city. A bicycle path is included in the plans and will go alongside the entire 16-kilometer tram track.
Bausch goes on to talk about the new free transportation that will also be available to tourists:
The introduction of free public transport is an important social measure. You could describe it as the social icing on the cake of the global strategy for a multimodal revolution. Apart from this, we want to acknowledge all those people who have already made the choice in favor of public transport.
To make things convenient for locals and tourists alike, the country has created a public transport app mobiliteit.lu. The app combines different modes of transportation and includes bicycling and walking, showing different routes, real-time traffic and shows the environmental footprint for each mode.
The country’s forward way of thinking has been carefully assessed after they realized that widening the roads only leads to more traffic they decided this is a much better option. After investing in new road construction for many years, the country has shifted its attention to public transport, encouraging people to leave their cars at home, save money, and help the environment.
