Urban mobility

EU: more discounts on public transport, but companies demand incentives

Tariffs already below the EU average, growing at a slower pace than prices

by Margherita Ceci and Michela Finizio

28 April 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Local government action
Low prices, but rising costs
Summer fears

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Energy vouchers for the most vulnerable households, cheaper public transport and reduced heating. But also discounted public transport tickets to reduce the number of cars on the road and fuel consumption. These are some of the measures recommended by the 'Accelerate Eu' plan, presented by the European Commission on 22 April to face rising energy costs and further reduce dependence on fossil fuel markets.

Public transport is a lever that national governments, according to the EU, can exploit. Examples in the annexes submitted with the plan include 'a single national transport pass allowing unlimited travel on all state-run inter-regional buses and selected services', 'DRT services in rural areas', or the 'freezing of rail fares through public compensation'.

Local government action

Some of these measures have already been taken for some time on almost the entire national territory: local administrations, which guide pricing policies, together with the companies providing public mobility services, have put in place contributions for the purchase of season tickets, lowered fares according to Isee, conventions for students and workers.

In Bologna for example, in addition to the introduction in 2025 of free travel for those accompanying children attending nurseries, kindergartens and elementary schools, a weekly 'price cap' of EUR 25 has been introduced for those who pay for urban tickets with a contactless card. "Partly on the basis of these recently introduced innovations, in Bologna there are a total of 134,000 personal annual passes valid for the urban area: of these, about 127,000 have some form of facilitation, of which 73,000 are totally free," explains Giuseppina Gualtieri, president and CEO of the city operator Tper, and vice-president of Asstra.

Low prices, but rising costs

In general, even without taking into account concessions, Italia shows lower prices compared to its European counterparts: according to Intesa Sanpaolo-Asstra's Tpl 2025 report, the average cost of a single ticket is 1.9 euro, compared to 2.1 euro in Spain, 2.3 in France and 3.8 euro in Germany. Not only that: compared to the inflation of transport, fares have risen much more moderately.

Yet, the risk that low prices and incentives will fail to compensate for theincreased costs incurred in providing services is real. In the case of Tper, for example, the 30 per cent increase in fuel costs resulted in an estimated 350,000 euro more per month.

And so the operators are also asking the government for help: "There is certainly strong concern about the international scenarios and their impact both onfuelling costs and energy and on the movement of people in terms of potential loss of tariff revenues," says the attorney general of the Avm Group (a company operating in Venice), Mauro Luigi Valenti. "We hope, together with the trade associations and local authorities, that the government will intervene to mitigate the impact on companies of this particular conjuncture."

Summer fears

At the moment, the technological mix of the fleet makes it possible to differentiate energy sources, preserving the continuity of services. However, there are those who look at the summer period with fear: "Operating in a region with a high vocation for tourism like Tuscany, which tends to record higher than average numbers of accesses to our services during the summer period, we also have reason to be concerned about the potential drop in accesses due to foreign tourists that we could record, given the rising costs of international flights and the intercontinental connections at risk," say At-Autolinee toscane, the company that manages public transport in all the cities of Tuscany.

Michela Finiziovice caposervizio
Luogo: Milano
Lingue parlate: Italiano e inglese
Argomenti: social network, innovazione, statistiche, data journalism, norme e mercato immobiliare
Scheda autore
Trust project