Article: Cut fares on airport line, planning group says

[somebody]

Cut fares on airport line, planning group says

Date
    October 3, 2012

Sean Nicholls
Sydney Morning Herald State Political Editor

THE NSW government should begin commercial negotiations with the private operator of the airport rail line to consider options to reduce fares and improve patronage.

The recommendation is understood to be contained in a 20-year state infrastructure strategy being released today by Infrastructure NSW.

Buying the airport rail line and cutting ticket prices at the domestic and international stations has been estimated to cost about $300 million. The operator, Airport Link, charges an ''access fee'' on top of the CityRail fare at the four stations it operates and manages at Green Square, Mascot and the international and domestic terminals.

The former Labor government negotiated with Airport Link to reduce the fee at Green Square and Mascot to benefit local residents but did not consider doing the same at the airport stations.
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A $12 access fee charged at the airport stations means a one-way adult ticket to the city costs $15.40 from the domestic and $16.20 from the international terminals.

Infrastructure NSW believes the cost of travel by rail to and from the airport is too high and improving accessibility is crucial to reducing traffic congestion.

A lobby group, the Tourism and Transport Forum, has argued the government should purchase the airport rail line. It is believed the strategy will not advocate a particular solution.

Infrastructure NSW will recommend hundreds of millions of dollars worth of upgrades to transport infrastructure around Sydney Airport.

The money should be spent on roads and public transport, including bus services to improve access from areas like South Sydney and Cronulla, the body is set to recommend.

It will also say that land in the Sydney basin such as Badgerys Creek should be protected as a possible site for a future second airport but that there is no immediate need for one to be built.

The recommendation is consistent with the state-federal report on Sydney's future aviation needs released earlier this year.

The Premier, Barry O'Farrell, yesterday reiterated his opposition to a second Sydney airport.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/cut-fares-on-airport-line-planning-group-says-20121002-26xe8.html#ixzz28Ce659D0

Something needs to be done about the high fares on this line.

[somebody]

If reducing fares on the AP line with an ongoing subisdy from the NSW govt is deemed to be a viable alternative to spending $xbillion on road upgrades, yes do it. Its not hard, just run a trial and see what happens.

Current share is 16% of airport traffic. AirLink themselves forecast achieving 20% with no subsidy in next few years.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/theurbanist/2012/07/10/is-rail-on-track-at-sydney-airport/

Even at those growth rates, traffic congestion is increasing at the airport, and significantly.  The forecasts were for approx 3 times current usage AIUI.  Achieving those forecasts would do a heap for congestion and at a very cheap price.

[somebody]

Syd Airport moves about 35m in 2010 (wiki), not sure how many of those are transit pax. So lets say 80% use Syd as arrival/Dest point, 28m. AirLink has 16% 4.5m (seems alot)., they hope to get to 20% or 5.6m with no subsidy

So assume the state wants to put say 10m of the current road uses on PT and half that on a train to off-set further road works. Needs to be a large number as alot of the traffic down that way is not airport bound or not PT convertable.

So to get 5m on the train, what will it take? Assume at least $5/pax, which means nearly 10m trips gets a $5 discount = $50mpa. As a rule, $50mpa off-sets the capital for projects greater than $500m. Make that $10/pax and get more people and you go plus $1-1.5B easy.

It's a far better deal to just buy out the owners and set the fares you want.  Perhaps you could get them to discount the fare by $5 for a $1 subsidy, but other than that you are likely to blow your budget too easily.  Look at what has happened at Green Sq & Mascot.

[somebody]

ABC 702 interview has some comments on this at the end: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/11/19/3635587.htm?site=sydney

At this stage, the O'Farrell Government has no plans to ditch the $12 surcharge to travel by train to Sydney airport.

Ms Berejiklian says the surchage is attached to a contract the government inherited.

"It would cost a lot of money to [reduce the cost]... It would literally cost hundreds of millions of dollars over a four year period to be able to do that... and even though at a particular point in time the state government will start recouping some of that money back, it's unfortunately already accounted for in our forward estimates."

So, because of the money that the fares might bring in, they aren't willing to reduce the fares, basically.  What about the money that upgrading the road network might cost.