PS chairman Paul Magnette wants the trains to run for free. He says that in the French-language newspaper The evening.
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‘The richest 1% produce the same amount of greenhouse gases as the poorest 50%. That’s hallucinatory,” he says in The evening. “And the poorest are always the first victims of floods, forest fires, tornadoes and diseases linked to the climate.” The floods of mid-July in Wallonia certainly do not contradict this.
The PS’er therefore thinks that an electric shock is necessary. “And that can be done by making public transport free,” he says in the French-language newspaper. ‘In Wallonia and Brussels we have already done this for under 24 year olds, which costs 300 million euros. Now we want to introduce that for the over-65s as well.’ But Magnette wants more: ‘I advocate completely free public transport, including the Nmbs. That’s the next stage.’
In the meantime, N-VA is not impressed: ‘A new day, a new very expensive PS proposal’, says Tomas Roggeman, Member of Parliament for N-VA, in a response. ‘But this kind of free policy will not change the major pain points of our rail transport. What we must do is thoroughly reform the railways, because what the population wants is better service, more punctuality and cheaper tickets. The only solution for this is the liberalization and regionalization of the railways.’
In seven haste
Train tickets bring in roughly 700 million for the Nmbs. According to Magnette, that amount can be easily found. ‘The 0.15 percent tax on securities accounts brings in 500 million a year. By bringing it to 0.5 percent, we will have ample resources. And if we initially make the NMBS free for under-24s and over-65s, it will only cost 150 million’, says Magnette.
The PS will take this to the government and Magnette is in a hurry. He wants to make a decision before the climate summit in Glasgow, from 10 to 12 November. Whether this new PS proposal stands any chance remains to be seen, given the atmosphere within Vivaldi.
In Wallonia, the price of the subscriptions of public transport company TEC was reduced by 70 percent. ‘A subscription of 1 euro per month per person is not a major obstacle. And it is an essential saving for the families,” says Magnette. “Yes, that comes at a cost: 100 million in Wallonia, 200 million in Brussels for the under-24s. Now we want to do the same for the over-65s.”
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