31 Oct 2010: SEQ: Go card journey capping for students?

[ozbob]

Media Release 31 October 2010

SEQ:  Go card journey capping for students?

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has welcomed the announcement of the journey capping for the go card for Seniors (red go card) and those users who use a green concession go card through a pension entitlement (1).  It would be a proper and easy thing to extend this journey capping to secondary and tertiary students, and children (2) as happens in other smart card jurisdictions (3,4).

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"RAIL Back On Track is delighted that Seniors and pensioners will have a journey cap on their public daily public transport use.  This means that these users can make multiple daily journeys and only pay for the first two.  This is important as this constituency does the greatest number of daily journeys as they go about their daily commitments and tough financial times have meant that many Seniors and pensioners have restricted their outings since the implementation of the fare structure on 4th January last. That was not acceptable and we are pleased that journey capping is to be introduced from 17th January 2011 for Seniors with a red go card and pensioners using the green go card."

"We again call for the journey capping to be extended to ALL green concession go card users from the 17th January 2011.  Students are the other constituency that do proportionally more daily journeys.  Most of the full time tertiary students are actually 'learner earners' and they need to undertake multiple daily journeys in the course of their study and part-time employment. Many secondary school students are also working part-time. Students are too struggling to make ends meet and on the same basis that capping has been given to Seniors and pensioners it is too a similar sometimes desperate situation for students."

"The loss of daily paper tickets and no journey capping on the go card for those students doing 4 or more journeys in a day for example could mean an effective fare cost increase of around 50% (5). This is why we are calling for journey capping to be extended to all students. Tourists who use paper single tickets will also be similarly impacted which is why we have called for stepped up education and  improved distribution systems of go cards for tourists."

"We think TransLink and Government should re-think this denial of journey capping to students. Extending this capping to students, secondary as well as tertiary, would encourage maximum use of public transport and further encourage public transport use after the completion of studies as well as assist in avoiding financial hardship."

"Similarly journey capping should also be extended to the child go cards to assist families to get out and about.  This would then place all concession fare go cards on a level playing field which then confirms why these card holders have reduced concession fares in the first place."

References:

1. http://www.translink.com.au/farechange2011.php

2. http://www.translink.com.au/go_cards.php

3. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx

4. http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/TicketsandFares/SmartRider/SmartRiderFaresandRules/tabid/103/Default.aspx

5. http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com/2010/10/2011-translink-cash-grab.html

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

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