14 council members voted for the decision, 24 against, and two council members abstained.
Free travel was supposed to be valid on city bus and regular ferry routes, regardless of the passenger’s ticket type.
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Povilas Pinelis, the elder of the opposition Social Democratic faction in the Vilnius City Council, who proposed the decision, stated that such a measure would be applied in response to the geopolitical crisis and the associated rise in oil and fuel prices.
“As fuel prices rise, inflation naturally increases. According to the latest Eurostat data, Lithuania is second in Europe in terms of inflation, so the expenses of Vilnius city residents are significantly increasing,” P. Pinelis said during the meeting.
Also, according to him, it was hoped to encourage residents to choose public transport more often during the autumn and winter seasons, reduce car use, traffic load, and air pollution.
“Since September is approaching, it is also one of the periods of greatest load on the city of Vilnius. Trips to schools, clubs, and other educational institutions begin, the number of trips and distances naturally increase, standing in traffic jams lengthens, and the city streets are especially congested for the next three months,” the council member added.
According to P. Pinelis’ calculations, due to free travel, the municipality would not receive about 5–6 million euros in ticket revenue by the end of the year. According to him, these funds would be compensated by adjusting the city budget from over-plan revenues.
Council member Almantas Stankūnas, in turn, stated that the proposal could be meaningful if a significant portion of drivers switched to public transport because of it, but he doubted whether a three-month period would be sufficient to change residents’ travel habits.
According to P. Pinelis, a limited period of free transport would allow Vilnius to empirically assess the impact of such a measure on residents’ habits.
Vilnius City Council member Violeta Podolskaitė, criticizing the proposal, stated that public transport tickets had recently been made more expensive to improve service quality, as passengers face inconveniences due to a shortage of buses.
“Tickets became more expensive because it will be inconvenient to travel, people complain, there is a shortage of buses now, we don’t fit. So we raised ticket prices for that reason, to somehow improve life for people,” V. Podolskaitė said at the council meeting.
As BNS wrote, public transport tickets in Vilnius became more expensive in July. According to the new pricing, a 30-minute ticket increased by 35 cents – to 1 euro, and the price of an hour ticket rose from 90 cents to 1.25 euros.
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