by Dan Hammond

Created on: July 05, 2007

In an ideal, state-controlled world, public transport would be free. However, if we look at the debate in detail, it's obvious that free public transportation would really not work.

It's a fact: governments and councils suck at running businesses. Unlike an owner whose living depends on the success of a company, civil servants have much less of an incentive to make the company thrive. If public transport were to be made free, and the council ran it, then the service would be atrocious as they would get the same amount of money regardless of performance. If a third party operated the service, then the government would have to pay them a set amount per year, and the same argument applies. An interesting debate is the matter of taxis being public transport. If they are, then making them free would definitely not work. There are so many competing companies that not only would the government have to pay a lot of companies, but also there would be no price competition between the various companies.

An argument for making public transport free is that citizens pay for it via council / local tax and therefore paying extra for it is unfair. Surely a much better system would be that only the people who use the transport pay for it? And how would that be enforced? Charging people to use it on the point of using it, of course. The government would reserve the right to allow certain people (OAPs, children etc.) to ride free on public transport, but the vast majority of the population would have to pay to use a public bus or underground service just like they'd have to pay to ride on a coach or in a taxi.

Also, public transport is a completely different kettle of fish to things like the Health Service. In the UK, where the NHS is free, one could argue that as a citizen it's a right to receive free health care. However, it's certainly much less of a right to catch a ride into town - overground or underground - and certainly not enough of a right to be completely free and wholly subsidized by the government.

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