Austrians can use nationwide public transport for €3 a day

[platinumsage]

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Austria’s Green ‘superminister’ Leonore Gewessler unveiled the new nationwide Klimaticket — “climate ticket”, heavily subsidised by federal taxes, to boost the use of public transport in Austria.

An annual Klimaticket, Gewessler said, will cost €1,095, and will cover rail, metro and bus networks in cities and everywhere between them, whether privately or publicly operated.

For Gewessler and Austria’s Greens, who entered into a coalition with the mainstream conservative People’s Party of chancellor Sebastian Kurz in January 2020, the gambit is also a bold bet to try to reassert their environmental agenda after months of drift.

Green transition: Austrians offered all nationwide public transport for €3 a day

The state-subsidised ‘Klimaticket’ was unveiled by Green party minister Leonore Gewessler

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Is this a good idea? Should someone living in Newton Aycliffe who might currently pay £3 a day to travel to work and back by bus, fund through their taxes a big subsidy for middde-class southerners to go swanning into London on the cheap? Surely such a policy benefits those who live in wealthy places with lots of public transport options to avail themselves of?

If it was instead funded by road pricing or similar it might be equitable, provided that the road pricing took account of available public transport options, but I can't see a case of funding this through general taxation.

 

[maomao]

Should someone living in Newton Aycliffe who might currently pay £3 a day to travel to work and back by bus, fund through their taxes a big subsidy for middde-class southerners to go swanning into London on the cheap?

They already do. Private motor cars and London transport are both heavily subsidised and taxation in this country is mostly regressive. If this policy were directly translated to the UK, at the same price, one of the groups that would benefit most would be low paid service industry workers who work in London but live in the outskirts and can pay 20% or more of their wages on public transport.

 

[platinumsage]

They already do. Private motor cars and London transport are both heavily subsidised and taxation in this country is mostly regressive. If this policy were directly translated to the UK, at the same price, one of the groups that would benefit most would be low paid service industry workers who work in London but live in the outskirts and can pay 20% or more of their wages on public transport.

Every penny that group of workers saved would be lost in increased housing costs as people flock to the cheapest locations from which they can conveniently commute into London for £3. All this paid for by northerners who get no benefit from it either.

This wouldn't work in the UK with London and the SE such a massive centre of wealth and transport infrastructure, unless the tax to pay for it was locally derived from road use, perhaps with a land tax component too.

 

[maomao]

Every penny that group of workers saved would be lost in increased housing costs as people flock to the cheapest locations from which they can conveniently commute into London for £3.

You're right. Public transport should be free to all and we need massive investment in public transport outside London.