Article: It?s the unfair card - Cost trip to 'smart' bus rides

[ozbob]

From Sunday Mail 3 Feb 2008

It?s the unfair card
Cost trap to 'smart? bus rides

Darrell Giles
POLITICAL EDITOR

THE new Go Card for public transport is not so smart, according to a Brisbane family facing a 30 per cent jump in bus fares if they use it.

Tony Dennis, of Holland Park, says he will have to pay at least $80 a year more per child for his three children to catch a bus to and from school using the State Government's controversial new electronic fare swipe-card.

His children currently use the Ten- Trip Saver ticket, which costs $10.80 - an annual cost for each child of about $260, Mr Dennis said.

A benefit is that they are valid until the 10 trips are used and the same ticket can be used by more than one child at the same time.

The new Go Card will cost $11.20 for a 10-trip week, with a discount system giving six student-fare rides at full cost ($1.40) and the next four at half price (70c). That's an annual cost of $340 per child for bus trips, Mr Dennis said. The Go
Card discount only applies if all 10 trips are within the same week, and the same card cannot be used to pay several fares on the same bus.

Sticking with the Ten Trip Saver is not an option. Transport Minister John Mickel says the ticket will be scrapped from June as they are used on only three out of 17 transport modes in the TransLink system.

Mr Mickel said the machines on buses used to validate the Ten Trip Saver tickets were outdated and needed to be replaced.

Figures from June last year revealed only 11 per cent of commuters now use Ten Trip Saver tickets.

Opposition transport spokesman Tim Nicholls said the Government had failed to
provide students with a discount scheme flexible enough I to suit their schedules. "Things like before- and after-school activities, part-time jobs and lifts from friends and family all disrupt the Government's strict discount plan," he said. 
"They haven't even considered just how many public holidays
and student-free days will disrupt the scheme."

Mr Dennis said keeping the Go Cards cashed up also was a problem. "We don't use credit cards. Therefore we need to go a railway station to get our bus fares before we can catch a bus ... I have no intention of  giving my children large amounts of cash."

The smartcard will be available throughout the southeast  by May.