Article: Outer suburban commuters to continue paying higher train fares

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Outer suburban commuters to continue paying higher train fares

Outer suburban commuters to continue payig higher train fares

    * Stephen McMahon
    * From: Herald Sun
    * April 30, 2010 12:00AM

OUTER suburban commuters will still pay higher train fares after the Government dropped plans to introduce a single fare across Melbourne's train system.

The plans were rejected at Cabinet meetings ahead of Tuesday's State Budget after fears it would lead to an increase in patronage and the crumbling train lines would not be able to cope with the extra passengers.

Despite claims a single ticket price would be easier for the malfunctioning myki system, Treasurer John Lenders  denied plans to cut Zone 2 ticketing would be part of the Budget.

He said the decision to get rid of Zone 3 tickets in 2007 had caused a huge surge in passengers levels, leading to problems such as delays and crowded trains.

An all-day ticket for Zone 1 costs $6.80; for a Zone 1 and 2 ticket it is $10.60.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said it was another indication about the muddle that myki had caused for the Government.

This comes only a week after it was revealed that state bureaucrats are soaking up more than a third of the budgeted $1.35 billion cost of the troubled myki smartcard.

The $505 million in taxpayers' money would be enough to buy 25 trains.

The big winner in next week's Budget will be regional commuters. Mr Lenders said the $4.4 billion regional rail link between Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, and growth suburbs of the western suburbs, with Melbourne would be the "single biggest component" of the Budget.

The money would speed up the project to allow 9000 more people to travel in from those areas every hour.

"The Budget is about building for the future," he said.

Despite predictions of a windfall from booming property prices, Mr Lenders said the state revenues were $3.8 billion below forecast levels because of the global financial crisis.

Mr Lenders said while there has been a return in property prices the volume has been low in established suburbs.

[Mozz]

So simplification of zones leads to higher patronage..... Let's do it then here in SEQ

[Golliwog]

Problem with that being however, our trains and buses are already overcrowded. Where do you suggest putting all these extra people?

[ozbob]

There is plenty of reserve capacity in rail.  Just needs funding, then we can have more direct rail feeds.

[ozbob]

Blast from the past  ...
   
Media Release 3 Nov 2006: TransLink Zones Rationalisation   

At the moment service frequency increase is probably more a priority but nonetheless something for the think tank Mozz.

The problems with bus/rail zones not equivalent might be a good place to start.

[#Metro]

The price could remain the same but many zones could be merged. This would result in fewer zones.
SEQ will always have many zones as the SEQ area is just huge.

More patronage will mean more paying people will be diluting the fixed costs of the rail system.
In other words, its expensive to maintain a SEQ wide rail network if you are only going to run low frequency services on it and have low patronage as a result. The more people, the lower the costs per passenger kilometre becomes.

A few more connections are required in the inner city 5km area if we are to make it truly metro-style.

[O_128]

o no we couldn't possibly want higher patronage. A flat fare system would be good or even a flat fare for BCC area with an addition for councils out of the area??

[ButFli]

The price could remain the same but many zones could be merged. This would result in fewer zones.
SEQ will always have many zones as the SEQ area is just huge.

How do you figure that out? Merging zones necessarily means changing fares for at least some of the affected areas. Think about it.

I live in Zone 1 and work and learn in the CBD. All the PT travel I do is within zone 1 and is a one-zone ticket. Any change to zones in Brisbane will mean I pay more (or possibly maybe the same amount if they don't change the boundaries of zone 1). There is no way they would/could reduce the number of zones but keep the fare for an X number of zones ticket the same.

[Golliwog]

...does anyone else find it amusing that we ended up talking about SEQ in the Victoria forum?