[hhlevnjak2]

Perhaps it would work in DE, but it can create wrong incentives.

Here in Croatia, we had "free" public transport in some places for i.e. students travelling to school. But the price was still paid for by the cities/government to service operators. Which led to inflated prices for the service because there's always a way for the operator and some officials to collude together for extra profit. And the increases weren't transparent until at some point the tickets were no longer "free", and suddenly their cost was way over what it was before it became "free".

[soco]

Corruption always finds a way, with or without free transport. What I mean, that cannot be a reason to not provide some service, because also the paid transport is getting (or can be) corrupted I suppose, just like everything else.

[FabHK]

> Corruption always finds a way, with or without free transport.

Indeed. I've taken the train in Romania with a Romanian friend. The ticket for both of us would have been X$, say, but she talked to the conductor and paid him 1/3 X$ in cash to "look the other way" and ignore us. Conductor pocketed that, we traveled cheaper, and the company lost the revenue.