Three French cities offer free public transport - and soon four?

Three cities in France now offer free public transport all week long, and a fourth - Clermont-Ferrand - could be set to join them, as more authorities aim to promote eco-friendly policies.

The three cities with free public transport all week long so far are:

Montpellier

The Hérault (Occitanie) city introduced daily free bus and tram travel for all 500,000 residents from December 21, 2023 at 19:00. In doing so, it became the largest city in Europe to offer free transport.

Mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, travelled to Dunkirk (see below), and Tallinn in Estonia (also below), to study other successful systems, and figure out how to bring them to his city.

Travel is only free for residents of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, and eligible residents need to apply for a Pass to use it.

Montpellier has introduced free transport gradually. 

• September 2020: Free public transport for weekend travel only. 

• September 2021: Free public transport for all eligible senior citizens added

• September 2022: Free public transport for all under-18s added 

The scheme costs Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole €42 million in commercial revenue each year, said the region’s departmental office. Mr Delafosse has said he estimates the revenue loss at €30 million, out of an operating budget of €900 million.

Read also: Montpellier makes all public transport free 

Dunkirk

The Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque (CUD) introduced free bus travel for everyone in September 2018. This applies to residents and visitors alike. Anyone of any age, income, or residence location can use a Dunkirk city bus for free, with no need to pay, buy a pass, or use an app. 

The scheme was a campaign promise made by then-campaigning mayor Patrice Vergriete when he ran (successfully) for election in the city in 2014.

Mr Vergiete, who is also a town planner, is now junior transport minister under outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. As mayor of Dunkirk, he said he wanted to introduce “a radical measure on a massive scale”, with 200,000 residents affected, of which 90,000 live close to the centre.

The scheme came amid massive investment (€65 million over two years) in the city’s centre, and a new fleet of buses.

Its success was immediate and has had a lasting impact. Bus passenger numbers rose by 50% in the first week after the scheme was introduced, and is now up 130%, five years later. In 2022, the city’s 16 bus routes covered a total of 644 kilometres, and carried 20.5 million passengers.

Niort

The Deux-Sèvres (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) city was the first in France to introduce free bus travel on urban and suburban routes, in a bid to reduce car use and boost public transport’s local image. It introduced the scheme on September 1, 2017.

Niort’s Tanlib network now has 10 urban routes, two shuttle routes in the city centre, seven suburban routes, six regional routes and 187 school routes.

The measure was a campaign promise from mayor and chairman of the Communauté d'Agglomération du Niortais (CAN), Jérôme Baloge, in 2014.

It appears to have been a success. Passenger numbers have increased significantly in the communes of the Niort Agglo, which have a population of 120,000. Mairie figures show a 30% increase in the number of users and record passenger numbers last year, with more than six million journeys. 

It also said that many car drivers have switched to using the buses; 85% of new bus users had previously travelled by car in the city before 2017. The free travel scheme prompted half the population to think about their travel habits, and 30% to change them, the mairie says. 

Niort now faces the challenge of how to continue the scheme, especially as the city’s population increases and the number of students is expected to reach 5,000 by 2030.

Will Clermont-Ferrand be next? 

Since December 4, 2021, all residents of the Clermont-Ferrand metropolitan area have been able to use public transport for free on weekends.

But now, mayor Olivier Bianchi, has said that he is “not opposed in principle” to the idea of making the city’s transport network free during the week too.

“We need to find €15 million a year,” he said to France Bleu Pays d'Auvergne on September 2, adding that the scheme would be “at the heart of the next municipal campaign” in 2026.

Clermont-Ferrand is not the only city to offer free public transport for weekend journeys; Nantes (Loire-Atlantique, Pays de la Loire) also does this, since introducing its own scheme on April 24, 2021. 

At the weekend, all passengers can travel for free, regardless of residence location or age.

Ahead of introducing the measure, Nantes mayor Johanna Rolland said: “This is both a measure to improve the purchasing power of residents and users of public transport, and a concrete response to the challenges of the ecological transition.”

Other European cities with free public transport 

France is not the only country whose cities are turning towards the idea.

In January 2013, the capital of Estonia became the first major city in the world to make all transport free, for the benefit of its 450,000 residents. Any resident with a valid transport card is now free to use the 789 kilometres of bus, trolley-bus and tram lines that crisscross the city and its surroundings.

Here, the scheme was primarily motivated by the Baltic economic crisis of 2008-2009, and was a way for the government to offer a boost to residents’ falling purchasing power. 

After three years of feasibility studies, the proposal was put to a referendum, and 75% of participants voted in favour. The city has been seen as a pioneer, and has been studied by other city leaders as an example of how to successfully implement a free transport scheme.

Luxembourg

The tiny country became the first in Europe to make all public transport completely free nationwide (for residents and tourists) in March 2020. It applies to buses, trams, trains and all funicular railways.

The only exceptions are the ‘call a bus’ on-demand service for users over the age of 70, and first class carriages on trains.

The country introduced the scheme for environmental reasons, to tempt people away from private cars. In 2020, the country had the highest car density in the European Union, with 696 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, compared with an average of 560 in the rest of Europe.

The country trialled the scheme for a few months for people under the age of 20, and students. After having been launched in what would become the start of the Covid pandemic, it initially faltered, as people did not want to take public transport and began to work at home. It is now recovering.