Velika Gorica is the largest Croatian city with free public transport

The municipality is probably best known as the home of the country’s largest international airport

Croatia has become the latest country with at least one large local community offering free public transport services to its residents. This happened after the City of Velika Gorica, the sixth-largest municipality in the Balkan country, made its urban bus lines free of charge from 1 July.

The municipal government decided to offer this benefit to the people after concluding a 7-year-long contract with the public transit operator Autotrans d.d. iz Cresa (a member of the Arriva group) to that effect.

The contract also includes an increase in the number of bus lines offered from 11 to 16, thus increasing the quality of the service while also making it free. One of these lines includes a connection to the local railway station, which represents an intermodality boost.

The way it works is that passengers must hold a free ticket when they board one of the urban buses. The free tickets can be obtained at the city hall.

Other towns in Croatia with free public transit

Velika Gorica counts some 61,000 residents and is the largest city in the so-called Zagreb Ring, which consists of suburban satellite towns surrounding the Croatian capital. To most people, including international visitors, it’s best known as the place where Zagreb Franjo Tuđman Airport, Croatia’s largest airport is located.

The experiment with free public transport in the Balkan country, however, was first launched in 2008 in the town of Bakar on the Northern Adriatic coast. The towns of Beli Manastir, Koprivnica and Sveta Nedelja took the same steps in 2014, 2018 and 2020, respectively.

Public transport is free in Zagreb but only for residents aged over 65. Now that a suburban city linked to the capital has opened the doors to free transit for all this increases the potential of also making it a reality in the largest Croatian city.

The free service in Velika Gorica will cost the municipality some 3 million euros annually.