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Map: The price of public transport for young Europeans

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Translation by:

Jessie L.

Lifestyle

For  young city-dwellers, public transport is usually the primary means of getting from point A to point B. Metro, bus, tram, ferry… there are numerous options, but how much does it cost to get around the city? What does each type of ticket include? Is there a discount for being young? This map brings together all of these questions for the 30 largest metropolitan areas in Europe.

Madrid revolutionised public transport in Spain when they announced that everyone under the age of 26 could have unlimited access to public transport for only 20 Euros a month. In Italy, the metro and tram system are both relatively inexpensive. A young person in Milan pays a similar price as in Madrid to get around the city. Then there is the other extreme: the United Kingdom. In cities like London, a young professional who lives in Twickenham could spend up to 200 Euros a month to travel to their workplace in the city centre.

While a citizen of Stockholm calmly boards a ferry to skirt around some of the numerous islands that surround the city, someone from Lisbon will be sitting on a yellow tram that advances with surprising energy up the steep hills of the Bairro Alto. There are different means of transport for different needs, but both will have to be very attentive when it comes to choosing the right ticket. Lisbon alone offers a choice of 50 different types of tickets.

Anyone who obtains a Navigo card in Paris can travel throughout the entire Île-de-France region, while an inhabitant of Cologne is obliged to scrutinise which zone their job, home, or gym is in to ensure they don’t pay any more than necessary.

Each European city has its own specific circumstances. Still, we tried to standardise the monthly travel fare for a young person who lives in one of the 30 main European urban centres. This is the result (to see the details for each city, just click on the markers. You can zoom in and out as well):

This map compiles the official 2017 travel ticket prices (data collected from the websites of the official institutions) in the  largest cities and metropolitan areas in Europe, according to Eurostat data. An explanation of the methodology can be found here and the database here. If you have any feedback or if you have encountered an error, please do not hesitate to get in touch by email:  editors@cafebabel.com

Translated from Mapa: ¿cuánto pagan los jóvenes europeos por el abono de transporte?