The whole greater Stockholm region is serviced by one publicly held non-profit public transport company, that offers one single immaterial digital ticket.
Stockholm is a big urban area, with no other big cities nearby. The central Stockholm area is home to a quarter of all the workplaces in the whole of Sweden. The workers for these workplaces are drawn from the whole of the greater Stockholm area. Also; Stockholm is built on a number of islands in the Baltic Sea and the great lake Mälaren, with bridges in between. It is not possible for all the workers commuting from homes in the suburban and rural areas to workplaces in the center of Stockholm to travel by car across bridges between islands. Hence the Stockholm public transport system transports in total one million people on three million journeys per day over an area ca 150 kilometres times 150 kilometres that is both urban, suburban and fully rural. Having a public transport system that is attractive enough to compete with commuting by car, is seen a necessity for the economic viability of the geographically fractured greater Stockholm area. Public transports runs with a single-ticket intermodular system over trains, boats, subways and buses. One single ticket costs 37 SEK, ca 3,5 Euros, that is “blipped” on a Master or VISA card one time at the start of the journey. This ticket is valid for 75 minutes. Hence there is no need to find a kiosk or similar as a point-of-sales for tickets.
Resources needed
The single price ticket needed a political decision in the Greater Stockholm Regional Assembly.
Evidence of success
This is a real-life practice, there is no control group. What can be noted is that the growth of travel on the Stockholm public transport system since single zone digital ticketing was introduced in 2017 has been greater than the general growth of economy and population of the greater Stockholm area. That fact indicates a net transfer of intraregional travel away from cars to the public transport system.
Difficulties encountered
Introducing this system was controversial in the Region Assembly, as the system gives an advantage to commuters who on a daily basis go over longer distances (e.g. rural to city center, and back again) over several modes of transport, while disadvantaging short distance occasional commuters.
Potential for learning or transfer
The main point of interest in this practice is that public transport systems in large regions that cover both urban and rural can become sprawling and complex.
However when a region introduces intermodal unitary ticketing, it increases transparency and predictability of pricing and leads to increased use of public transport, over private cars.
