On 1 June 2026, Kansas City started charging bus fares again, six years after it became the first US city to scrap them citywide. Five weeks later, Porto went the other way and made its entire Andante network free for residents. That push and pull defines fare-free transit in 2026. Luxembourg remains the only country where everyone rides buses, trams and trains for free. Malta is free for residents. Among cities, Tallinn (residents), Dunkirk (everyone), Montpellier (residents), Belgrade (everyone) and now Porto (residents) are the best-known examples, alongside dozens of smaller towns in France, Poland, Germany and the United States.
The tables below list who qualifies, which modes are covered and when each scheme began, with every 2025 and 2026 change we could confirm. Unless another source is linked, entries draw on Wikipedia’s fare-free transit register, which cites local operators and press for each listing. Status is as of October 2026.
Luxembourg Free for All, Tallinn and Porto for Residents Only
- Luxembourg is the only country with free public transport for everyone, residents and tourists alike, since 29 February 2020. First-class train seats still cost money.
- Many famous schemes are residents only: Tallinn, Montpellier, Malta, Cascais and Porto. Visitors to Dunkirk, Belgrade and Luxembourg ride free too.
- 2025 and 2026 brought big moves both ways: Belgrade (January 2025) and Porto (July 2026) went free, while Spain’s free commuter passes ended in June 2025 and Kansas City brought back bus fares in June 2026.
- Research consistently finds ridership gains, about 25% in Kansas City, but weaker effects on driving. Tallinn’s car share rose from 42% to 48% in the decade after fares were dropped.
Countries With Free Public Transportation
Only two countries make most public transport free nationwide, and only one does it for visitors. Several more waive fares for particular age groups, which is often what people mean when they say transit is “free” somewhere.
| Country or State | Who Rides Free | Modes | Since | Status in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luxembourg | Everyone | Buses, trams, trains (second class) | 29 Feb 2020 | Running |
| Malta | Residents | Most public bus routes | 1 Oct 2022 | Running |
| Hungary | People aged 65 and over, and children 14 and under | MÁV national rail, Volánbusz intercity buses | March 2024 (current age rules) | Running |
| Ireland | People 66 and over; some disabled people and carers | Public transport under the Free Travel scheme | 1967 | Running |
| Scotland (UK) | Under-22s; people 60 and over | Buses | Under-22 scheme from 31 Jan 2022 | Running |
| Washington State (US) | Under-18s | Most local transit, Washington State Ferries, in-state Amtrak | Sept 2022 | Running |
| Estonia (county buses) | Everyone, in 11 of 15 counties | County buses | 2018 | Largely abolished January 2024 |
| Spain (commuter rail passes) | Frequent riders with multi-trip passes | Cercanías and medium-distance trains under 300 km | 1 Sept 2022 | Ended 30 June 2025 |
Luxembourg: The Whole Country, for Everyone
Luxembourg dropped fares on buses, trams and trains on 29 February 2020, becoming the first country to do so. There is no residency test, so tourists ride free on the same terms as locals. The one exception is first class on trains, which still needs a ticket.
Malta: Free for Residents
Malta made most public transport free for residents from 1 October 2022. Tourists still pay.
European Cities With Free Public Transport
Europe has the largest concentration of fare-free cities. France has the longest list, from Châteauroux (2001) to Montpellier (2023).
| City | Who Rides Free | Modes | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tallinn, Estonia | Registered residents | City buses and trams; Elron trains within city limits | 1 Jan 2013 |
| Dunkirk, France | Everyone | Urban bus network | Weekends 2015; all week 2018 |
| Montpellier, France | Residents of the metropolitan area | Trams and buses | 21 Dec 2023 |
| Belgrade, Serbia | Everyone | All city public transport | 1 Jan 2025 |
| Porto, Portugal | Residents with a municipal card | Whole Andante network: Metro do Porto, STCP and Unir buses, urban trains, tram | 10 July 2026 |
| Cascais, Portugal | Registered residents, students and workers | Buses | 2 Jan 2020 |
| Gibraltar | Residents and workers | Buses | May 2011 |
| Marbella, Spain | Registered residents | Municipal buses | 2019 |
| Niort, France | Everyone | Urban network | 1 Sept 2017 |
| Châteauroux, France | Everyone | Urban network | 2001 |
| Libourne, France | Everyone | Urban network | 28 Aug 2010 |
| Cahors, France | Everyone | Buses | 2 Nov 2019 |
| Erlangen, Germany | Everyone | Inner-city buses | 1 Jan 2024 |
| Augsburg, Germany | Everyone | City-center zone only | 1 Jan 2020 |
| Kelheim, Germany | Everyone | Local buses | Nov 2021 |
| Żory, Poland | Everyone | Municipal transport | 1 May 2014 |
| Lubin, Poland | Everyone | Municipal transport | 1 Sept 2014 |
| Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland | Registered residents, local taxpayers, students | Municipal buses | 1 Jan 2026 |
| Kolín, Czech Republic | Everyone | Municipal transport | 1 Jan 2023 |
| Jagodina, Serbia | Everyone, including 52 nearby villages | City transport | Jan 2019 |
| Kharkiv, Ukraine | Everyone | Metro, trams, trolleybuses | 2022 |
| Morsø, Denmark | Everyone | Municipal buses | 2009 |
| Namur, Belgium | Everyone | One city-center circular route | 2024 |
| Cluj-Napoca, Romania | Everyone, Fridays only | Trams and buses | 18 June 2021 |
Tallinn’s Residents-Only Model
Tallinn dropped fares on 1 January 2013, but only for people registered as living in the city. Visitors still buy tickets. Elron commuter trains are free for residents inside city limits, while regional buses are not. More than a decade on, it remains the scheme other cities cite, Montpellier among them.
Montpellier and Dunkirk: Two French Templates
Dunkirk made its buses free for everyone, tourists included, on weekends in 2015 and every day from 2018. Montpellier, a far bigger network with trams, went free for residents of the metropolitan area on 21 December 2023, a policy local leaders said was inspired by Tallinn, as The Connexion reported. Visitors to Montpellier still pay.
Belgrade: Europe’s Largest Free Network for Everyone
From 1 January 2025, Belgrade made all city public transport free for every rider, residents or not. The European Commission’s Urban Mobility Observatory described it as the largest European city to offer free public transport.
Porto: Portugal’s First Free City Network
Porto’s scheme started on Friday 10 July 2026, according to Euronews. Residents with the updated municipal card ride the whole Andante network, from the metro to STCP buses and urban trains. The mayor put the annual cost at €20 million to €25 million and plans to raise the tourist tax to €4 a night to help pay for it, so in effect visitors fund locals’ rides.
US Cities With Free Public Transportation
Most US fare-free systems began as pandemic measures in 2020 and survived on federal relief money. As that money ran out, each city had to decide whether to keep paying. The results now split three ways: permanent, extended for a set period, or ended.
| City or Area | System | Since | Status in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque, NM | ABQ RIDE buses | 2022 | Made permanent |
| Tucson, AZ | Sun Tran | 2020 | Permanent |
| Alexandria, VA | DASH buses | 2021 | Running |
| Richmond, VA | GRTC | 2020 | Funded through 2027 |
| Olympia and Thurston County, WA | Intercity Transit | 2020 | Pilot extended to 2027 |
| Montgomery County, MD | Ride On buses | Under-18s 2019; all riders July 2025 | Expanded in 2025 |
| Frederick County, MD | TransIT | 2026 | New in 2026 |
| Boston, MA | MBTA bus routes 23, 28 and 29 | 2021 | Extended through December 2026 |
| Worcester, MA | WRTA, all buses | 2020 | Running |
| Cape Cod, MA | CCRTA | 2025 | Running |
| Chapel Hill and Carrboro, NC | Chapel Hill Transit | 2002 | Running, funded by local taxes and university fees |
| Logan, UT | Cache Valley Transit | 1992 | Running |
| Iowa City, IA | Iowa City Transit | 2023 | Funded through 2026 |
| Lawrence, KS | Lawrence Transit | 2023 | Running |
| Columbia, MO | Go COMO | 2020 | Running |
| Memphis, TN | MATA | 2025 | Pilot |
| Tampa, FL | TECO Line streetcar | 2018 | Running |
| Milwaukee, WI | The Hop streetcar | 2018 | Running, sponsorship-funded |
| Kansas City, MO | KCATA (RideKC) buses | 2020 | Ended: fares returned 1 June 2026 |
| Rome, GA | Rome Transit | 4 Oct 2021 | Ended 29 Dec 2023 |
| Tacoma, WA | Sound Transit T Line | 2003 | Fares introduced 2023 |
Why Kansas City Brought Fares Back
Kansas City’s zero-fare buses ran from 2020 on relief funding that dried up in 2023, according to a Children’s Mercy research summary. KCATA announced the end of the program in 2025, and the Missouri Public Transit Association confirmed the return of bus fares on 1 June 2026. The reversal matters because Kansas City was the model other US cities pointed to.
Free Transit in Asia, Australia, Canada and Latin America
| Place | Who Rides Free | Modes | Since | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi, India | Women | City buses | 2019 | Fare-free tickets for women |
| Tamil Nadu, India | Women | Buses | 2021 | Statewide scheme |
| Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | Everyone | Go KL City Bus | 31 Aug 2012 | Central loop routes |
| Melbourne, Australia | Everyone | Trams inside the Free Tram Zone | 2015 | Covers the CBD and Docklands |
| Darwin and Alice Springs, Australia | Everyone | Public buses | July 2024 | Northern Territory scheme |
| Victoria, Australia | Everyone | All trains, trams and buses | 31 Mar 2026 | Temporary fuel-crisis measure, extended to the end of May 2026 |
| Tasmania, Australia | Everyone | Buses and ferries | 30 Mar 2026 | Temporary, ran to 30 June 2026 |
| Canmore, Canada | Everyone | ROAM local buses | 2019 | Mountain town service |
| Orangeville, Canada | Everyone | Orangeville Transit | 2023 | Ontario town network |
| Maricá, Brazil | Everyone | Municipal buses | 2014 | Rio de Janeiro state |
| Paulínia, Brazil | Everyone | Municipal buses | 2013 | São Paulo state |
Australia’s 2026 experiment was a stopgap. Victoria and Tasmania dropped fares in late March 2026 to ease a spike in fuel prices, Insider Guides reported, and Victoria extended its free period in April before fares returned at the end of May. Queensland took a different route with flat 50-cent fares since 2024, cheap but not free. In India, Karnataka also lets women ride non-AC state buses free.
2025 and 2026 Changes to Free Public Transport
- January 2025, Belgrade: all city transport became free for everyone.
- 2025, US: Cape Cod (CCRTA) and Memphis (MATA, as a pilot) dropped fares.
- 30 June 2025, Spain: the free multi-trip commuter rail passes introduced in September 2022 ended.
- July 2025, Montgomery County, Maryland: Ride On went fare-free for all riders, up from under-18s only.
- 1 January 2026, Gorzów Wielkopolski: municipal buses became free for registered residents, local taxpayers and students.
- March to June 2026, Victoria and Tasmania: temporary statewide free travel during the fuel price spike.
- 1 June 2026, Kansas City: bus fares returned after six years.
- 10 July 2026, Porto: the Andante network became free for residents.
- 2026, Boston: free service on MBTA routes 23, 28 and 29 was extended through December 2026.
Does Free Public Transport Work? What the Research Shows
The evidence is consistent on ridership and mixed on traffic. Free fares reliably bring more people onto buses. Whether they take cars off the road depends on the place, and in the best-documented city, Tallinn, car use still went up.
| Place or Study | Finding | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Kansas City, Raleigh, Richmond, Tucson | Zero fare linked to a 25% ridership rise in Kansas City and 20% to 25% across the four cities, sustained for several years | NIH-funded study led by Children’s Mercy (2026) |
| Santiago, Chile | Randomized trial: free access raised total travel 12% and off-peak travel 23% | Bull, Muñoz and Silva, Regional Science and Urban Economics (2021) |
| Tallinn, Estonia | Car share of trips rose from 42% to 48% over nine years of free transit | Mari Jüssi, Estonian Transport Administration, via Economedia (2022) |
| UCLA campus | Ridership up 56% in year one; solo driving down 20% | Shoup (2003) |
| Hasselt, Belgium | Ridership up to 13 times higher by 2006; free travel for adults ended in 2013 | City of Hasselt records |
Three lessons stand out from these results. First, ridership gains are real but moderate in big systems: a 20% to 25% bump is meaningful, not transformative. Second, effects on driving vary. UCLA’s campus program cut solo driving by a fifth, but Tallinn is the cautionary case, where Jüssi concluded the policy had not shifted people to sustainable transport, though she credited it with social benefits for families with several school-age children, as Economedia reported. The experts in that piece, including Luxembourg’s then deputy prime minister François Bausch, agreed that service quality and connections decide whether passengers come, and Bausch argued free fares without a wider investment plan are not a good idea.
Third, the money has to come from somewhere, and it decides whether schemes last. The Santiago trial, published in Regional Science and Urban Economics, also found extra off-peak travel, which uses spare capacity cheaply. Peak-hour crowding is the expensive part. Kansas City ended its program when relief money ran out, Hasselt dropped free adult travel after 16 years, and Porto is leaning on tourists to fund its €20 million to €25 million annual bill. If you want to see how a cut fare compares with a ticket price rise in your own city, our percentage calculator does the arithmetic.
Riding Free as a Visitor: Where Tourists Qualify
- Free for visitors too: Luxembourg, Dunkirk, Belgrade, Kolín, Niort, Châteauroux, Melbourne’s Free Tram Zone, Kuala Lumpur’s Go KL buses and most of the US systems listed above.
- Residents only: Tallinn, Montpellier, Porto, Cascais, Marbella, Gibraltar (residents and workers) and Malta. Plan to buy tickets in these places.
- Partial or timed: Cluj-Napoca is free only on Fridays, Augsburg only in its city-center zone, and Namur only on one circular route.
Planning a trip around these networks? Our flight time calculator and public holidays by country guide help with timing, and our ranking of the best cities for digital nomads in Europe covers longer stays. More guides sit in our Lifestyle section.
Free Public Transportation Questions Answered
Which Country Has Free Public Transport for Everyone?
Luxembourg, since 29 February 2020. Buses, trams and second-class train travel are free for residents and visitors alike. Malta is free too, but only for residents.
Is Public Transport in Tallinn Free for Tourists?
No. Tallinn’s free transit, in place since 2013, covers only people registered as city residents. Tourists need a ticket.
Is the Kansas City Bus Still Free?
No. KCATA brought back bus fares on 1 June 2026, ending the zero-fare policy that began in 2020.
What Is the Largest City With Free Public Transport?
In Europe, Belgrade, where all city transport has been free for everyone since 1 January 2025. Montpellier is the largest French network that is free, though only for residents.
Which US Cities Have Free Buses Permanently?
Albuquerque and Tucson have made fare-free service permanent. Chapel Hill has been free since 2002 and Logan, Utah, since 1992. Richmond and Olympia are funded through 2027.
Fare-Free Registers, City Announcements and News Reports
- Wikipedia: Free public transport (register of fare-free systems, accessed October 2026)
- France 24: Luxembourg becomes first country with free public transport (2020)
- Cities Today: Malta makes most public transport free
- ERR News: Estonia’s county bus fares
- The Guardian: Spain announces free rail journeys (2022)
- EU Urban Mobility Observatory: Belgrade becomes largest European city to offer free public transport (January 2025)
- Euronews: Porto becomes first Portuguese city with free transport for all residents (July 2026)
- The Connexion: Montpellier makes all public transport free for residents
- ERR News: French city adopts free public transport policy inspired by Tallinn
- Missouri Public Transit Association: KCATA announces return of bus fares on June 1, 2026
- Children’s Mercy Research Institute: NIH-funded zero-fare bus research results (August 2026)
- Insider Guides: What’s going on with public transport in Australia (updated May 2026)
- The Daily Aus: Victoria to extend free public transport travel period (April 2026)
- Economedia: Does free public transport work? Lessons from Tallinn and Luxembourg (2022)
- Bull, Muñoz and Silva: The impact of fare-free public transport on travel behavior, Regional Science and Urban Economics (2021)
