Lofti Mostefa, the new vice-president of the Brussels public transport company, put forward the idea when he took office on Monday at a meeting of the board of directors.
“My goal is to bring in new ideas,” he told Belgian news outlet, RTBF. Lofti Mostefa is hoping to find a consensus and plans to make the metro, trams and buses partially free: “This could allow the people of Brussels to abandon their car and take public transport.”
It is acknowledged, however, that free public transport service has a non-negligible cost. The idea of Lofti Mostefa would be to offer free trips to certain target audiences and at specific times such as in the evenings or on weekends.
The idea had already been put forward by the CDH group who presented a motion in the Brussels Parliament. The Humanist party has asked the Brussels government to launch a cross-sectional study to determine the costs and the feasibility of such a measure.