Sapic: Public transport in Belgrade to be free for everybody from January 1

After last year’s unilateral termination of the contract on the ticketing and ticket control with Kentkart, a system which had functioned for more than ten years, and after the introduction of new tariffs and a new ticketing system, which has not improved the collection of fare revenues as the city expected, the City of Belgrade has made an unexpected decision with 2025 on the horizon – the introduction of free public transport for everybody!

As the mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Sapic, pointed out, and as reported by N1, the public transport in Belgrade will be free for everybody from January 1, 2025.

– From January 1, 2025, all public transport in Belgrade will be free. So, nobody will have to pay the fare. There are no longer monthly or annual fares or discounts – Sapic announced at a press conference at the Old Palace.

He said that, with this social measure, the City of Belgrade was becoming a leader in public transport and that it would be the only city in Europe with more than half a million residents where public transport is free.

What the mayor is boasting about is something that those familiar with the public transport system have been criticizing for years, ever since the idea of free public transport was considered and proposed by certain opposition parties in Belgrade. As experts have said, the introduction of free public transport is a populist measure which can lead to a good number of citizens starting to see public transport as a social category, that is, a social service, and something in which not a lot is invested.

The introduction of free public transport in the capital city is another in a long range of “experiments” of the current city authorities which concern the public transport of passengers, and which have been undertaken in the past two years.

When it comes to free public transport, it will be free for the citizens only in formal terms, because, of course, everything that has to do with the organization and maintenance of the vehicles and lines and other aspects of public transport will essentially have to paid for from the city budget, that is, the budget of all residents of Belgrade.

D. A.

Grad Beograd

Aleksandar Šapić

public transport in Belgrade

introduction of free public transport in Belgrade