Free public transport - Merkel is aimless – opinion

The proposal to make public transport free of charge in polluted cities is a “sign for political organ failure” and shows that Chancellor Angela Merkel does not have a plan, writes Nikolaus Doll in an opinion piece for Welt Online. “You don’t have to be a transport expert to guess the consequences,” Doll writes: millions of additional commuters would flood into buses and trains, and more vehicles and lines would be needed. “Of course, all this is possible, but it takes years, costs billions and is not aligned along free market lines.” The government has had plenty of time to think of a plan, “but Berlin just thought: it’ll all turn out ok”.

Read the opinion piece in German here.  

Read the CLEW article German cities might test free public transport to cut pollution for background.