It’s not quite John o’Groats to Land’s End, let alone Florida to Alaska, but undertaking an end-to-end expedition across Luxembourg has its advantages. The first is that you can do it in a morning: it’s about three hours by public transport. The second is the journey won’t cost you a cent. That’s right – total cost for two buses and two trains, travelling about 60 miles: zero euros. Since March 2020, all public transport in Luxembourg has been entirely free to use. While elsewhere in Europe rural bus routes are disappearing and train travel can be more expensive than driving or even flying, Luxembourg has taken things in the opposite direction: improving its transport services and dispensing with fares altogether, with a view to easing traffic congestion, reducing inequality and meeting climate targets. As a very small and very wealthy country – the richest in the world if you look at GDP per capita – you could say Luxembourg has it easy, but could this initiative work in other parts of the world? Does it even work in Luxembourg?
I set out on my trans-Luxembourg odyssey one summer’s morning, with not a euro or a care in the world. All I really need is the journey planner on the government’s easy-to-use Mobilitiéits Zentral app.
