Serbia’s capital city offers free public transport for residents

CGTN Europe

Serbia’s capital Belgarde has introduced free public transport for all of its residents, becoming the largest European city to do so.  The aim of this new measure is to reduce the number of cars on the roads.  Aljosa Milenkovic has the full report  #Serbia #Belgrade #PublicTransport

Transcript

00:00They say there is no such a thing as a free ride.

00:04Well, in Belgrade, there is now.

00:08A big change for residents that's part of a bigger civic plan.

00:15This is part of a social program that we began to implement from the moment I became mayor.

00:20Belgrade has also introduced free kindergartens as well as many other socially oriented measures.

00:27It's hoped the impact of this scheme will be far-reaching.

00:35This free transport program creates many other potential effects,

00:39like reducing air pollution in the city and attempting to reduce traffic jams in the town center.

00:46By introducing free public transport, we aim to motivate people to use it more.

00:52Road congestion and traffic jams are a daily nightmare for the 1.7 million residents of Belgrade

00:59and the hundreds of thousands of daily visitors.

01:03Rapid development in the capital has resulted in a dramatic population increase.

01:09All these people need to go to commute to and from work,

01:13need to take their children to school, as well as get out and about on their daily errands.

01:19And the car is their preferred mode of transport.

01:23The consequence of all that traffic, well, sometimes it can be very frustrating.

01:30The city hopes to learn from other towns that have already introduced free public transport.

01:36They found that the new and well-maintained vehicles

01:39are key to getting people out of their cars and onto the buses and trams.

01:46We are giving credibility to these measures through the continuous renewal of the public transport fleet.

01:52We expect that by the end of 2025, there won't be a vehicle older than two years,

01:57and that has never happened in Belgrade.

02:00The big question is how much will this scheme cost?

02:04While the city won't give an exact figure,

02:06it says its entire public transport budget for 2025 is between 360 and 412 million U.S. dollars.

02:16The test now is to see if they can entice more people onto Belgrade's 1,300 buses, trolleys and trams.

02:25Aljoša Milenković, CDTN, Belgrade.

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