Europe's Most Affordable and Accessible Public Transport as Ranked by Greenpeace

Greenpeace has analysed and unveiled the actual state of public transport in 30 European countries, compiling a corresponding ranking, according to an announcement from the organisation.

The campaign's group of analysts ranked public transport in countries based on four criteria: simplicity of their ticket sales systems, availability of long-term tickets, discounts for socially vulnerable segments of the population, and VAT rates.

The analysis was conducted following the introduction of new inexpensive national travel cards in Germany and Hungary from May onwards.

The report indicates that public transport tickets in the EU are taxed at an average of 11% VAT. This is higher than many other essential goods and services. Currently, six EU countries tax public transport the same way as jewellery or luxury watches. These are Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Slovakia, Croatia, and Hungary.

Meanwhile, VAT on cross-border plane tickets in the EU is 0%, and fuel for planes is also not taxed, which maintains a low price for air transport, a pollutant to the environment, while environmentally friendly transport remains expensive.

Aside from Luxembourg and Malta, which have made domestic public transport free, only Austria, Germany, and Hungary have introduced relatively affordable nationwide tickets, which cost less than 3 euros a day. Roughly two-thirds of the analysed countries do not have long-term travel tickets at all.

The report also examined individual capitals, evaluated in the same categories. Each capital and country was assigned its score out of a possible 100 points.

Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Germany, Cyprus, and Spain took the top spot with high marks for user-friendly tickets and discounts.

Tallinn in Estonia, Luxembourg, and Valletta in Malta took the first three places in the city ranking.

Greece, Croatia, and Bulgaria ended up at the bottom of the country list.

Bulgaria did not score any points in any of the four categories.

In terms of individual cities, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, London in the UK, and Dublin in Ireland received the worst ratings for the cost and availability of public transport.

The ranking of countries with the best state and cost of public transport is as follows:

Luxembourg (No. 1),

Malta (No. 2),

Austria (No. 3),

Germany (No. 4),

Cyprus (No. 5),

Spain (No. 6),

Switzerland (No. 7),

Hungary (No. 8),

The Netherlands (No. 9),

Estonia (No. 10),

Czech Republic (No. 11),

Belgium (No. 12),

Ireland (No. 13),

Slovenia (No. 14),

United Kingdom (No. 15),

Denmark (No. 16),

Portugal (No. 17),

Sweden (No. 18),

Poland (No. 19),

Lithuania (No. 20),

Finland (No. 21),

France (No. 22),

Italy (No. 23),

Slovakia (No. 24),

Romania (No. 25),

Latvia (No. 26),

Norway (No. 27),

Greece (No. 28),

Croatia (No. 29),

Bulgaria (No. 30).

The ranking of capitals with the best state and cost of public transport is slightly different and is as follows:

Tallinn (No. 1), Luxembourg (No. 2), Valletta (No. 3), Prague (No. 4), Bratislava (No. 5), Madrid (No. 6), Rome (No. 7), Vienna (No. 8), Athens (No. 9), Sofia (No. 10), Nicosia (No. 11), Warsaw (No. 12), Brussels (No. 13), Ljubljana (No. 14), Lisbon (No. 15), Budapest (No. 16), Riga (No. 17), Vilnius (No. 18), Bern (No. 19), Oslo (No. 20), Helsinki (No. 21), Zagreb (No. 22), Berlin (No. 23), Copenhagen (No. 24), Stockholm (No. 25), Bucharest (No. 26), Paris (No. 27), Amsterdam (No. 28), London (No. 29), Dublin (No. 30).

You can also check out the list of the friendliest cities in Europe, the ranking of the most visited European cities, and the ranking of the best nudist beaches in Europe.