ESTONIA: Tallinn becomes the first European capital to offer its residents free public transport

Record ID: 241217

  • Title: ESTONIA: Tallinn becomes the first European capital to offer its residents free public transport
  • Date: 1st January 2013
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) RESIDENT OF TALLINN, LILIANA KOHNOVITCH, SAYING: "It's good for the workers and for the students it's great. I think the most important thing now is to maintain the same quality of the public transport."
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Estonia
  • Country: Estonia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAEI8HWKVBVSW5X8HAXGW8TDK6R
  • Story Text: January 1st might bring a few thumping headaches with it but for Tallinn residents, also a New Year's treat. The Estonian city is now the first capital in Europe to offer its residents free public transport.
    Tourists and visitors are not so lucky and will still be expected to pay up to 1.60 euros for the ride.
    While the concept may seem too good to be true, Tallinn's deputy mayor, Taavi Aas, says the city's budget and environment will benefit.

    "All the world's major cities are struggling with the increase of cars. Cities have different solutions, some charge for driving in the city centre, there are those who, until recently, were building new roads. We found that the most sensible approach would be to solve the issue through free public transport," Aas said.
    Free public transport for all city residents is of course not cheap. However, at the moment the council already subsidises approximately 70 percent of all public transport expenses. Research showed that the new ticket system will cost the city budget an additional 12 million euros every year.
    These expenses are expected to be partially financed from the extra income in the budget brought by free of charge public transport.
    Free public transport in Tallinn will be available only for residents registered in Tallinn. Several thousand people have registered their place of residence in the city in the last few months.
    The city's budget receives about one million euros for every 1,000 residents.

    "We have significantly increased the number of people already today through the registrations. If we consider that we have approximately up to 10 percent inhabitants who haven't registered themselves in Tallinn. If they now register, then it is an increase in our tax base," Aas added.
    And the city has gone further in improving its infrastructure.
    New traffic lanes have been introduced on major city streets, several streets are now closed to private transport, parking lots have been enlarged and rates for parking have risen.
    The city has also introduced a new electronic ticket system, updated public transport services and purchased 70 new buses and at least 15 new trams.
    The New Year's move comes after a spring referendum on the issue with 75,5 percent of the city residents supporting the idea.

    "It's good for the workers and for the students it's great. I think the most important thing now is to maintain the same quality of the public transport," resident Liliana Kohnovitch said.

    "Free public transport is good. People will have more possibilities to travel around and if it will make city traffic better than I am only for it," Victor Bolshakov added.
    But it has not all been plain sailing, with some residents and the municipality opposition claiming the city cannot afford free public transport and criticizing the use of budget.

    "To be honest I'm a little confused by the free public transport because as resident of Tallinn and a citizen of this country I'm thinking where the money will come to pay for it. It's a great investment and therefore I was against free public transport," one resident, Jelena Ulyanova said.
    Until now the biggest city to offer free public transport was Aubagne in southern France with about 400 000 inhabitants.
    In the small Belgian town of Hasselt free public transport was introduced in 1996. The city leaders say that already in the first day of free public transport the number of passengers increased from 1,000 to 8,000 and has remained the same since then.
    Many cities in the world will now watch closely whether Tallinn can make a success of the development of a greener city environment.
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