"This is something to be happy about": the French Communist Party supports Aulas's proposal for free public transport

After Jean-Michel Aulas declared that he wanted to make public transport in Lyon (TCL) free, the Communist Party of the Rhône assured in a press release that this proposal "has something to delight [them]." In this note released on Friday, June 6, the PCF of the Rhône recalls that "the communists of the Rhône have been campaigning for more than a decade to make the right to mobility effective for all the residents of Greater Lyon."

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This measure "would be a remarkable step forward for our community, which would place the Lyon Metropolis among the major innovative and progressive communities in France," and retorts to those who are against it that "network development and free access must go hand in hand. And like any social progress, this requires going beyond the financial straitjacket in which the State confines us, to imagine new sources of financing."

The PCF therefore calls for the implementation of "the alignment of the ceiling of the Mobility Payment of the Metropolis (currently capped at 2%) with that of Paris, that is to say at 3% of the payroll of companies with more than 11 FTE (full-time equivalent: Editor's note)" , "zero-rate CDC credit lines, which would save Sytral 97.2 million euros this year" and the implementation of "the tax on office space (TSB), as exists in Île-de-France or PACA."

He added: "The right to mobility is a fundamental right, just like the right to education or health. It cannot be left to the market alone, but must be organized into a large national public service, the sole guarantor of equal treatment for all our fellow citizens and our territories." A petition to this effect has also been put online by the PCF.

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