'A Fare-Free Principle': The History and Development of Fare-Free Public Transport in Ikast-Brande, Denmark

This report examines the history and development of fare-free public transport (FFPT) in the Danish municipality Ikast-Brande from its initial trial in 1994 to the present. This is often referred to as the municipality’s “fare-free principle” (“gratis princippet”). The report has been written for the project “From Low Fares to No Fares: An Analysis of Economic, Operational, Socio-Spatial and Political Dynamics of Fare-Free Public Transport” (LiFT) (www.freepublictransport.net). It contributes to the project’s aim to survey the global geography of FFPT: the sizes, natures, finances and histories of extant and past FFPT systems. In its focus on Ikast-Brande, the report fills in a blank spot on the global map of FFPT (cf. Kębłowski 2019). Although relatively well known in Denmark, FFPT in Ikast-Brande has only received scarce scholarly attention and little is known about the system internationally. The report is not a comprehensive or conclusive study of FFPT in Ikast-Brande, but it does clarify a number of key issues. Based on a corpus of Danish newspaper articles dating from 1994-2022, it has been possible to create a reasonably clear picture of when FFPT was introduced in the municipality and under what circumstances. The reasons behind the introduction and continued existence of the FFPT system are evident too. The report also provides information about the size of the network and how it is (and has been) administered in relation to other public transport networks in Denmark. Finally, the report discusses Ikast-Brande’s FFPT system from five different perspectives: political and administrative; economic; social; environmental; and influence and applicability. These perspectives were not determined prior to the research, but emerged organically out of the studied material either because the issues kept reappearing or they were the focus of particular attention at a particular time.