Article: Council axes taxi service after demand flags (PPT)

[ozbob]

From Brisbanetimes click here!

Council axes taxi service after demand flags

Council axes taxi service after demand flags
Georgina Robinson | May 20, 2008 - 12:56PM

Brisbane City Council will axe two boutique-style public transport services after it was revealed the subsidised trips were costing ratepayers up to $108 per passenger to operate.

Council will pay $350,000 this financial year for Black and White maxi-taxis to take residents from six suburbs where public transport is scarce to shopping centres and larger bus stops or train stations.

Passengers in parts of Karana Downs, Bald Hills, Carindale Hills, Wynnum, Kangaroo Point and Calamvale pay a flat fare of just $1 for the cab and council subsidises the rest.

Figures reveal almost 1000 passengers used the Karana Downs maxi-cab last month and demand was also high in Bald Hills and Carindale Hills.

But patronage was flagging in other suburbs, with just 410 people using the Kangaroo Point service during an entire year.

Public and Active Transport Chair Jane Prentice said maxi-taxis would no longer service Kangaroo Point or Wynnum and the number of cabs in Calamvale would be cut from two down to one.

Cr Prentice said low demand meant council paid $108 per passenger to put the cab on the road in Kangaroo Point, $91 per passenger to operate the service in Calamvale and $35 to keep the cabs in Wynnum.

"The two we have had to cut are totally untenable and should have been axed much earlier," she said.

The decision will save $9900 in the next four weeks of the current budget.

Labor Councillor for The Gabba ward, Helen Abrahams, said the Kangaroo Point maxi-cab was unpopular because it did not link up with a shopping centre.

Cr Prentice said funding would not be cut from the program and other routes would be considered, as well as putting the cabs into other suburbs.

"The Lord Mayor remains committed to (personalised public transport) to meet the needs of people living in neighbourhoods where buses either can't travel or where there's insufficient demand," she said.