Fare Free London featured in the Green Left magazine ‘Watermelon’ in October. The Green Left is ‘an Eco-socialist, Anti-capitalist current within The Green Party’. The text of the article is below, and available on the Green Left blog here.
Free public transport is a demonstration of Just Transition.
It’s not hard to think of clever policies which support a just transition, but the one staring us in the face is free public transport. Making public transport free would unequivocally support the worst-off in our society with their living costs, and encourage people onto public transport. It would help advance the socialist goals of the movement, and would help the Green Party win electorally, if they got behind this policy.
The Green Party manifesto for the London elections (Greater London Assembly and Mayoral) has for the last few years supported a flat ticketing structure, which would be a step in the right direction. Fare Free London campaign, launched last year, and Fare Free Yorkshire launched this summer, are asking for one step further. The implementation of free public transport would be a recognition that the non-polluter shouldn’t pay, and a useful gift to the millions of people struggling with the cost of living. It would actually be more accurate to say ‘extending’ rather than ‘implementing’ free public transport, as in London many demographic groups already get certain types of public transport for free, and nationally the over 66s already have free bus travel. With over 150 cities in the world already operating with free public transport, it’s less of a radical demand than it first seems.
It’s great to see the socialist political strand asserting itself within the party, with the election of Zack Polanksi and the influx of new members joining to support him and to push for socialism more broadly. This movement brings a vibrancy and hopefulness to the party-political landscape. For many years the climate movement has been suffering with the reputation of asking unrealistic privations of people – turning off your lights for Earth Day springs to mind. We on the left know that the climate movement shifted years ago towards a ‘just transition’ and moved away from a ‘politics of guilt’, but the reputation still sticks. Free public transport is emblematic of a new politics of plenty: a generous state which genuinely rewards people for doing the right thing for the climate. Perhaps it lays the groundwork for easier implementation of road user charging, or perhaps it stands on its own merit as a good solid policy easing the cost of living. Either way, it sets up a framework for a state that provides services in exchange for taxes, rather than cuts services and charges us for them. For the Green Party, supporting free public transport would help the electorate recognise the exciting change occurring within the party.
Some amongst you in the readership of Watermelon might be thinking, ‘surely it would be better to have more reliable and more frequent public transport, not just free public transport?’ Our answer is that all three are needed, plus improving accessibility on the network for disabled people. Free public transport is the same demand as ‘more investment’, but framed in a way that’s oriented towards the public, not towards policy wonks. With free public transport, what you see as a passenger is a real benefit to you, not a behind-the-scenes change in funding arrangements that doesn’t really affect your day-to-day. Of course, there would be a funding change: a funding set-up with less reliance on tickets would need to be topped up with more investment from taxation, but the overall pot of funding could be more fairly arranged if the burden were placed on the wealthy through taxation, rather than on the poorest in our society who need buses to travel around. And while free public transport alone doesn’t reduce car usage, it effectively equalises the two options: even a small ticket price seems like a barrier to a journey by public transport, and once you already have a car your journeys are free at the point of use.
When we speak to people about this idea, the response is very positive, which is rare when talking about transport policy. People often come up with concrete ways that free public transport would improve their lives. The hardest part in this campaign is persuading the politicians that it would be worth putting the effort in. Ideally we’d have legislative change to make free public transport possible everywhere. Currently, local authorities have the power to reduce fares (the West Midlands Combined Authority made buses free after 7pm last December), the problem is they don’t have revenue-raising powers to infill the loss. Instead of making councils take the hit, the national government could grant local authorities the powers to implement a payroll tax (how free public transport is funded in France), to exploit increased land values around bus and train interchanges (how they fund it in Hong Kong), or the national government could simply fund public transport long-term from a central pot, for instance by ending all road-building projects.
Having Green Party support (locally or nationally) would be a huge boost to the campaign, and it would demonstrate to the public that we think travelling in an environmental way shouldn’t feel like a punishment.
Published: 16th December 2025.
