A new Greenpeace report has revealed the state of public transport across 30 European countries.The campaign group ranked nations based on four criteria: the simplicity of their ticketing systems, affordability of long-term tickets, discounts for socially disadvantaged groups and VAT rates.
The report also looked at individual capital cities, rating them based on the same categories.Each capital and country was assigned a score out of a possible 100 points.Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Germany, Cyprus and Spain came out on top with high scores for easy-to-use tickets and discounts.
Tallinn in Estonia, Luxembourg and Valletta in Malta came in the first three spots for the city ranking.Greece, Croatia and Bulgaria were at the bottom of the country list with Bulgaria scoring no points in any of the four categories.When it comes to individual cities, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, London in the UK and Dublin in Ireland scored the worst for cost and accessibility.The cities with the cheapest monthly or annual tickets right now are Prague, Bratislava, Rome and Vienna.
In these places, the cost is around €0.85 or less per day after the price level adjustment.Madrid also makes the list but only temporarily with its 60 per cent discount on monthly tickets running until 30 June this year. Spain has also made regional and commuter trains free for frequent users until the end of 2023 though there are some restrictions including a maximum of four trips a day.The most expensive cities in Europe were London, Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam.