Image Courtesy - Can Pac Swire/Flickr
Luxembourg, one of the richest countries in Europe made public transport free for everyone across the country in February 2020. Could that work in Calgary?
First let’s look at some of the reasons why Luxembourg made the decision in the first place.
Traffic congestion – Although Luxembourg has a relatively small population - 643,941 inhabitants, according to the 2021 census. It has a strikingly high motorization rate, with about 670 passenger cars per 1,000 people, which lead to major traffic jams, especially in the urban areas of the nation. According to Delano, drivers spent almost 156 hours stuck in the traffic throughout the year in 2019.
The cost of subsidies – Prior to making the public transportation free, the Luxembourg government subsidized almost 90% of the total transportation cost. Ticket sales generated about $62 million, which is nowhere near to the cost that the government was paying for the public transport.
Environmental concerns – Due to high number of cars running in the country, it led to a large carbon footprint. This was another reason to take the step. More people travelling via public transit means less cars on the roads, which automatically reduces the carbon emissions in the country.
On the Luxembourg subreddit on Reddit, several Luxembourgers shared their thoughts and opinions on Luxembourg’s free transit move under the question thread. A Reddit user, EngGrompa wrote, “Public transport was always cheap here. It used to be 2€ per travel or 4€ for the whole day (which is nothing compared to the salaries here).”
“Since public transport is free, I use it much more and barely use my car anymore. The reason is not money but just convenience. I enjoy just being able to get into a bus / train without having to worry about paying for my ticket. It just made using public transport much more convenient and less annoying,” the user added.
A Canadian living in Luxembourg compared the country’s transit to Toronto transit and wrote, “I can promise you that the Toronto transit isn't even 10 per cent as reliable, clean or safe as Luxembourg. The city buses are super reliable with multiple routes for every direction. The people that live outside the city, it's the same for all suburbs and rural areas, they use the buses less, so they have less service.”
Could this idea work as well in Calgary, as it did in Luxembourg?
Calgary already has ‘free fare zones’, from City Hall/ Bow Valley College C-Train station to Downtown West/Kerby station, covering eight stations and most of the city’s downtown area and require no proof of payment to ride. According to Everyday Tourist, Over the years there have been many requests to extend the free fare zone beyond the current limits, especially to Stampede Park, but the Calgary Transit is supposed to be at least 55 per cent funded by user fares and extending free fare zones to popular destinations like Stampede Park would result in a significant decrease in revenue income, which would then result in increased cost to the taxpayer.
As for the fare costs, a general adult ticket, which is valid for 90 minutes after the purchase is $3.70, the day pass is $11.60 and the monthly pass is $115. The City of Calgary also offers Low Income Monthly Pass, Weekend Group Day Pass, Regular Seniors Annual Transit Pass and Low Income Seniors Annual Transit Pass. More information related to passes can be found at Calgary Transit’s website. Pets are exempted from paid fares and ride free. According to data.calgary.ca, Calgary’s total transit ridership was approximately 90 million trips in 2023, which is almost one-third higher as compared to 2022. The revenue/cost ratio for 2022 was 27/73, where 27 per cent of the total operating cost of Calgary Transit was covered by revenues and 73 per cent of the total operating cost was covered by municipal tax support. The target of the ratio was 50/50, but since 2015, Calgary Transit has not been able to reach the target. Taxpayers are already indirectly paying for most of the cost required to run Calgary Transit.
Apart from financial terms, transit safety is another topic of concern for many Calgary Transit riders. In 2023, there were 3,300 criminal charges were laid and 5.400 warrants executed in and around transit. Many think that making transit completely free could spike these numbers enormously high. Luxembourgers on Reddit shared similar experiences, a Reddit user - Wolfstarkiddo wrote, “The amount of addicts/drunks I have encountered in the train was quite high and the last experience I made weirded me out and disgusted me enough to prefer to pay for parking and gas.” She shared her experience and wrote, “Some group of drunks was sitting near me on a 4 seater, they were hiding a poor cat behind them, but anyways they were loud, aggressive and very smelly. But the worst is one of them started clipping his toenails and the clippings flew everywhere including myself. Yeah no thank you. And I did not feel safe enough to just get up and leave as a young and small woman, with 3 drunk men sitting nearby looking at me creepily.” Similar situations can be expected from not only Calgary but almost any other city after making public transit free for everyone.
Free public transit in Calgary for now seems a distant dream, as the City is willing to increase the revenue from transit to balance and meet the cost/revenue ratio and the city has already increased fare prices in January of this year.