Mass Transit In Greece Free This Week Due To Economic Crisis

Cameron Aubernon
by Cameron Aubernon

Some transit authorities offer free service to encourage ridership. Greece is offering free service this week because no one has money.

As a result of Greece’s banks shutting their doors and ATMs for the entire week in order to prevent potential bank runs at the expense of their customers — in turn the result of the failing bailout of the nation’s economy — transportation minister Christos Spirtzis declared transit service in Athens would be free to all until next week, Business Insider says.

The move would affect only those in the greater Athens metro area, where 40 percent of the nation’s population call home; the next-largest city, Thessaloniki, can’t waive its fares because its system isn’t fully run by the Grecian government. Meanwhile, Greece stands to lose €4 million ($4.44 million USD) as a result of the declaration; typical fares are around €1.20 ($1.33).

(Photo credit: hans-johnson/ Flickr/ CC BY-ND 2.0)

Cameron Aubernon
Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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  • Mikey Mikey on Jun 29, 2015

    Greece , made their bed, now lie in it. . I'm seeing my blue chip shares taking a bath today . My financial guy says "ride it out". I understand squat , when it comes to international finance. As matter fact , I don't understand a whole lot about long term investments , period. I'm comfortable with a 3 -5 percent return . That's why a pay somebody to do it for me. I can bring my portfolio up on line, and I find today rather scary. I also have figured out that if I make 10 dollars , and spend 15..... There will come a day of reckoning . Why can't Greece , grasp this concept ?

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    • RobertRyan RobertRyan on Jun 30, 2015

      @thornmak Pretty good summing up

  • Jkross22 Jkross22 on Jun 29, 2015

    Stupid question: What happens when Greece defaults and the people owed don't get paid? Don't those who own the debt need to pay someone for their debts? Poorly worded but you get the point.

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    • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Jun 30, 2015

      "What happens when Greece defaults and the people owed don’t get paid?" People who own that debt don't get paid, or they take a haircut. See: Argentina. The problem with Greece isn't (partly, or even mostly) that they're overly profligate, or that they don't "pay their dues", it's that they have a national economy without their own currency. Most other countries can deflate their way to competitiveness and then claw back up, or they can just declare bankruptcy and sort things out. Greece and other euro-zone countries can't do a) because of the Euro (you can't deflate a currency shared by multiple states; Florida can't deflate for the same reason), and doing b) is much harder because their currency is held hostage by other nations and a default by one shakes confidence in the others (even if Greece is to the Eurozone what Miami or Atlanta is to the US dollar) If the rest of the ECB (read: Germany) would have either bailed Greece out comprehensively without the need for crippling---and almost punitive---austerity, or not allowed Greece in in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue. But, as Pch notes above, German exporters and bankers wanted their cake and to eat it too. I imagine that Greece is being watched very closely by Italy and (especially) Spain, who are also being forced into a straightjacket so that Germany can remain competitive. If Greece comes out of the Grexit in decent shape (Argentina did) then it's good news for the _people_ of Spain and Italy, and perhaps less good news for Germany (and to a lesser degree, France), especially their bankers and exporters. The Eurozone is going to have to decide if they want to be loose economic cooperative (like the EEC was originally) or a fully federal union (like the United States) with a unified political process. What they have now (a currency union and some free-trade deals) is the worst of both worlds.

  • Steven Lang Steven Lang on Jun 30, 2015

    I posted this on Facebook yesterday evening, and given what's been mentioned here I'll post it here at TTAC. Four lessons we can learn from Greece. 1) You can't 'elect' money if your creditors aren't willing to give it to you anymore. 2) Most governments are voracious destroyers of the lesser wealth owned by the many, and the strongest protectors of the greater wealth owned by the few. 3) Humanitarian aid for Greece will be far more helpful than financial aid over the next year. A lot of good people are going to get seriously hurt and unfortunately, the clown who now runs the place won't be among them. 4) Greece would be far better off splitting into separate countries and abandoning the crippling legacy that is modern Greek governance. As far fetched as this seems now, it may be worth remembering that city-states ruled Greece for a far longer period of time than the current republic.

    • Pch101 Pch101 on Jun 30, 2015

      It's fun to moralize about Greece, but it misses the point. The lessons are obvious to anyone who understands economics, as we've been down this road before: 1. Currency pegs have to be well managed or else they don't work. 2. Central banks have to work on behalf of all of their constituents, not just for one at the expense of the others Instead of being part of Europe, Germany wants to dominate it. Everyone else has paid for this attitude, and it obviously isn't the first time in modern European history when the Germans have wreaked havoc on their "inferior" neighbors.

  • MRF 95 T-Bird MRF 95 T-Bird on Jul 01, 2015

    Here is a list of places that offer free public transit. They view transit as a public good akin to police, EMS, fire parks and roadways. http://freepublictransit.org/Success_Stories.php Another way is to implement congestion or value pricing. http://www.nnyn.org/updates.html

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