In 2013 Tallinn（爱沙尼亚首都塔林） became the world's first capital city to offer people free public transport. Last year Estonia（爱沙尼亚）set the aim to become the first country with free public transport nationwide. Buses are now free of charge in 11 of its 15 counties.
Tallinn's city government came up with the idea of free transport in 2008. Even though the city paid more than 70% of public-transport costs, ticket prices were still too high for poorer people. Crowdedness had also become a problem. Since 1991, the number of people owning cars has doubled.
Opponents（反对者） thought the idea unaffordable and critics（批评者） predicted the transport system would become overcrowded and lack money.
Surprisingly, public transport has improved, despite a €12 million hit to the system's finances from lost ticket sales. Tallinn's population has grown, leading to an increase in local tax intake. Additional revenu（e 财政收入）comes from tourists, who still have to buy tickets. The use of public transport in Tallinn
has gone up by 10%, while the number of cars in the city has gone down by 10%, meaning less congestion. Now other countries are looking at Estonia's experience. Tallinn officials say they have had interest from France, Sweden, Poland, Italy and Germany. Other places have already introduced free public transport for certain groups or at certain times. In England 1/3 of all bus trips are fare-free especially for pensioners（领养老金者）; Wales runs free travel at weekends to improve tourism. But so far full fare-free travel is rare. The city of Hasselt in Belgium ran free public transport for 16 years before reintroducing fares because of increasing costs.
