Task 2 · Positive or negative development · Transport
Making public transport free
A positive-or-negative essay on fare-free buses and trains, where the band 9 answer judges the policy by what the lost fare income could otherwise have bought.
The question
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Some cities have made all public transport free to use, paying for it through taxation instead of fares. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?
A 250-word discursive essay — the half of the paper that carries two thirds of the marks. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
The 6.5 and 7.5 both assume that free buses will fill with former drivers; the 9 points out that price is seldom what keeps people off public transport, so abolishing fares mostly rewards existing passengers at the expense of a better service.
The three answers
Band 6.5
290 words (the task asks for at least 250)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
In recent years, some cities decided to make the public transport free3 for everybody, and the money comes from the taxes instead of the tickets. In my opinion, this is a positive development, although it also has some disadvantages.
The first reason why it is positive is that it helps the poor people. For a low income family, the bus tickets are a big expense every month, especially if they have to travel to work or school every day. If the transport is free, they can save this money and spend it for other important things like food or education. Also, the old people and the students can travel more easily, so they will not feel lonely at home.
Another reason is the environment. When the buses and trains are free, more people will leave their car at home and use the public transport instead.1 As a result, there will be less cars on the roads and the air pollution will reduce4. This is very important nowadays because many cities are suffering with the dirty air.
On the other hand, there are some negative points. The government has to pay a lot of money for this system, so maybe they will increase the taxes, and the people who never use the bus also have to pay for it. Moreover, the buses can become too much crowded5, because many people will use them even for a short distance. In the morning the buses are already full with workers and students, and if they are free, it will be worse.
In conclusion, I believe free public transport is a positive development because it helps the poor people and the environment. The government should find the money carefully so the service stays good.2
What an examiner notices
1. Task response
“When the buses and trains are free, more people will leave their car at home and use the public transport instead.”
The whole environmental case depends on this sentence, and it is assumed rather than argued. Why do people drive now, and would a free ticket change that?
2. Task response
“The government should find the money carefully so the service stays good.”
The question that decides whether the policy works — where the money comes from, and what happens to the service — appears only in the last line, and is handed to the government unanswered.
3. Grammatical range and accuracy
“In recent years, some cities decided to make the public transport free”
'In recent years' needs the present perfect ('have decided'), and 'public transport' is a generic uncountable noun that takes no article.
4. Lexical resource
“there will be less cars on the roads and the air pollution will reduce”
'Fewer' with a countable plural, and pollution 'falls' or 'is reduced'. Both words are close to the target, which is the pattern at this band.
5. Grammatical range and accuracy
“the buses can become too much crowded”
'Too much' modifies nouns; before an adjective the form is 'too crowded' or 'far too crowded'.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
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