The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) has proposed a 69 euros-a-month pass (£59.55), which it calculates would be financially sustainable. One proposal is to rename it the “climate ticket”.
The Irish government has implemented a 20% fares reduction across all public transport from May to the end of 2022, to help with the cost-of-living crisis and encourage more sustainable travel. Adults aged 19-24 receive a permanent 50% reduction. For various reasons, this age group is increasingly eschewing car ownership, so embedding public transport use is a long-term benefit.
In Spain, a 30% discount on national public transport was followed by a 50% discount on multi-trip tickets (not singles) from June on RENFE commuter and regional services of less than 300km (186 miles). The discount was raised to 100% until the end of the year, funded by a windfall tax on energy companies and banks.
Commentators observe that this is of use only if one’s local railway has a viable service. As in France, often local and regional lines in Spain have only three or four trains a day, in marked contrast to the countries’ high-speed lines.
In Austria, ÖBB and WESTbahn introduced summer tickets valid for 30 days for those aged under 20 and 20-26. Seat reservations were necessary for certain Friday-Sunday trains to avoid overcrowding.
UNLIMITED USE CARDS
Best known is the Swiss General Abonnement (GA), which astonishingly dates back to 1898. It provides unlimited use of public transport over 99% of routes, at prices ranging from CHF 2,700-3,860 per annum (£2,383-£3,406). By 2019, half a million were in existence.
But the most radical is Austria’s KlimaTicket. Also known as the 1-2-3 ticket, it offers unlimited use of public transport across three areas: 1 euro per day in the state of residence; 2 euros a day for travel in two neighbouring states; or 3 euros per day - €1,095 (£945) for the year - to travel throughout Austria. For juniors and seniors, the annual pass is 821 euros (£708). A 110 euros family supplement allows up to four children between the ages of six and 15 to travel with you.
Federal funds make up the difference between cost and receipts from sale of the pass. The costs are based on data from transport companies which they are required to supply, with different rates of compensation for commercial services and those operated under public services obligation. Safeguards prevent over-compensation.
The plan anticipated sales of 110,000 in the first year. In fact, 180,000 have been sold and anecdotal evidence suggests modal switch to the extent that some trains have become overcrowded, although this is also due to late delivery of new trains. Passenger numbers in May 2022 were 15% higher than the all-time high in 2019.
The real value of unlimited travel cards is that it reduces the marginal cost of using public transport to zero, creating a huge advantage over the car.
As does entirely free public transport, although the only country to have taken that bold step is Luxembourg, and its wealth and limited geography have much to do with that.
So too does the fact that fares previously covered less than 10% of the operating costs, making the bill for free transport a modest 41 million euros (£35.4m). An unintended consequence is that people are less inclined to walk or cycle.
TIME FOR ACTION
All this will be academic unless the Government stops fiddling while the world burns and realises the multiple wins that fares reform would achieve.
Unless government stops seeing the railways as a cost, and instead properly recognises the potential for higher revenue and the varied benefits that follow from their greater use, fares reform that would increase use is unlikely to happen.
The Government says one thing but implements measures that take us in the opposite direction. Its Decarbonising Transport plan of 2021 says that public transport should be the cheapest and most attractive option and cheaper relative to car usage than it is now.
But while rail fares have constantly risen by more than the rate of inflation, freezes in fuel duty since 2011 have led to 5% more traffic, five million additional tonnes of CO2, a quarter of a billion fewer bus journeys, and 75 million fewer rail journeys, according to Greener Journeys CEO Claire Haigh.
The current structure, coupled with the perception of fares as expensive, fosters inefficiency. It cannot make sense that a ScotRail seat is unoccupied for 75% of the time.
Given elasticity of demand, there is a strong argument that filling the millions of empty seats through lower fares could actually increase revenue. Lower fares would also ease the cost-of-living crisis, help revive urban centres, and could be part of levelling up.
Silviya Barrett, Head of Policy and Research at the Campaign for Better Transport, argues: “A fare freeze next year could actually boost income by attracting more passengers, and could be paid for by a tax on domestic kerosene which would also help make inter-city train travel more comparable with domestic flights.”
Part of the problem in convincing the Treasury of the case for a new approach to fares and wider transport funding is that the benefits of modal shift to rail are often hard to quantify.
