Great Western Coffee Shop

From this month, all the buses in Niort are free to use. This is not a new idea in smaller to middling French towns, and Aubagne even has a free tram line, but Niort is the biggest so far (120,000), and next year Dunkerque (200,000) will do the same.

There are as many as 45 smaller towns cited in some reports, but when examined in more detail this all means a lot less than it seems. The lists include a lot of free town-centre services, usually just one per town, and those exist even in Britain (as well as commercial ones; even we have a free Tesco bus). But there is a clear difference of approach in France.

The key point is that these are towns that previously had bus networks (mainly contracted to Transdev or a local company) which had hardly any passengers. Niort, for example, covered just 10% of its cost from fares. In the UK, the obvious inference drawn might be that there was not much point providing something no-one wants.

In France, local government sees running transport as a not being optional - I don't think it is literally compulsory, just a self-image thing. They also have far more freedom to raise money and spend it how they like, little or none of the rigid control from central government we have. So Niort is closing 5 of its roughly 30 routes, to reduce costs by at least 10% even with the 30% more passengers they expect, and running the rest as a free network.

Note that projected increase - just 30% on top of what was not a lot before. It is hard to claim that there is a large unmet need due to the current fares.

Now the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is proposing free public transport too. From The Local (https://www.thelocal.fr/20180320/paris-hidlago-could-paris-make-public-transport-free-for-all-residents):


Note that fares cover 28% of the region's transport costs, so as elsewhere it's not such a big step to zero. Also, while the over-65 free Navigo pass is means tested, obviously it too is heavily subsidised when paid for. On the other hand, the "lots of spare capacity" argument used in smaller towns might not ring quite so true to Parisians.

PS: Yes, that is the prime minister for some reason, not madame la maire.

We have a free town bus service on our line at Carhaix - http://admin.ville-carhaix.bzh/upload/espace/1/les_services/transport/Hep_le_bus/2017/Affiche_HepLeBus_2017.pdf

It runs hourly during the daytime (with a long lunch break, natch) on Monday to Saturdays, linking residential areas, supermarkets and major shops, town centre and railway/bus station. It's a minibus, but not like the modern, accessible ones you see on town bus routes in the UK - Think more the beat up minibus that used to take you on school trips. To be fair though, the driver always steps out and helps elderly and disabled passengers on board.

I visit Carhaix once a week and always use it to get around, and it genuinely seems useful and popular.

I wonder whether in these cases the bus companies and communes are running services with buses and drivers between school services, where buses and drivers would otherwise be underused?

It's also important to note that that French transport providers get much of their funding from a levy on employers called the Versement Transport - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versement_transport (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versement_transport). Up to 2.7% in the case of Paris, hence perhaps why they can afford to be so generous.

Also, not quite comparing like-with-like, but it's perhaps useful to note that STIF (RATP + SNCF + Others) covers something like 29% of its operating costs from farebox revenue, whereas for LUL it's 107%. It would be interesting to know what TfL's finances would look like if it had a VT of 2.7%, jolly healthy I would imagine!