Well that is certainly possible (and speaks volumes to how areas like the North of England repeatedly get the short shrift) but I think the main take-away for me is that the 10p fuel duty reduction was seen as no big deal ... but a "free public transport" policy that would move the country closer to their emissions goals and make people's lives better while reducing financial burdens would've been considered a ridiculous, impossible extravagance.

As has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the national rail networks in DE and UK is already operating at near-capacity so adding more passengers wouldn't exactly help, but making it cheaper to use local bus, tram and train networks would be brilliant.