[jokethrowaway]

The thing is, for a lot of people it is really free.

Poor people pay very little tax, rich people (admitting they wanted to use public transport for whatever reason) use offshore tricks to pay very little tax.

So you have a vocal poor majority of people telling a minority of marginally richer middle class to foot the bill and a handful of rich people who pay the government to make sure things stay the same and they don't need to start paying.