Mr X Fare System

[Mr X]

So I've been thinking about the way fares are collected and how discounts etc. are applied, and I have come up with a new fare system for SEQ. It's not perfect, but I think it's better than what we've got now. Some people will find themselves paying less, some people will find themselves paying more (mainly long distance commuters).

Fare Structure:
The Adult Go Card peak fare is the basis of this fare structure, and from this all other discounts are applied.
1 zone fare is $2.00 and prices increase incrementally based on zones:
2-4: add 50c per zone (covers most of Brisbane Council area)
5-8: add 70c per zone (covers out to Beenleigh, Ipswich, Caboolture)
9-17: add $1 per zone (covers out to Varsity Lakes, Helidon, Nambour)
18-23: add $1.20 per zone (rest of the network)

This is so that the most expensive long distance train trips have greater cost recovery per km, as stations are further apart and less people use it etc.

Off peak fare discount: 30% of peak adult/concession price- available on Go cards only.
Concession fare discount: 50%

Keep paper tickets for those who forget their go card/new to the network etc., but add a 75% fee onto the use of this to make using paper realllly undesirable.
Offer a paper ticket rebate which is available to those with a go card and those who purchase one. Effectively, this rebate is 75% of the difference between the paper and relevant go card fare (peak or off peak) depending on time of day. This rebate may only be claimed within 2 weeks of date of travel and will only be given as additional credit on a go card, not as a cash refund. Rebates can be claimed anywhere go cards are sold with the exception of ticket machines. Paper tickets must be surrendered to receive rebate.

Frequent user discount: 3 most expensive journeys in one day are at full fare, rest are half price. Adjustments are made overnight and any overcharged sum is returned via a go card credit. Only available to trips made on go card.

Fare tables:


Some examples:

Scenario 1:
Mary travels 8 zones to work in peak hour but forgets her go card for that day, so she pays 2x $11 ($22) and goes to a newsagent the next day with her go card and is given a rebate of $7.06, thus she paid $22-7.06 = $14.94 for that day's travel, which is more than if she had taken her go card ($12.60).

Scenario:
John is an adult frequent network user and took 4 journeys in a single day. His journeys were:
6 zone peak ($4.90), 2 zone offpeak ($1.75), 2 zone offpeak ($1.75) and 6 zone peak ($4.90). While he pays $13.30 for that day's travel, he is refunded 50% of both his offpeak journeys as they are his cheapest, and gets $1.75 back overnight.

[somebody]

I think there's too many fare band increments.  I don't like the difference after 9 zones but that is a necessary evil because zones 10-23 are about twice as far apart as 1-9.

Why aren't we pulling paper for just having go cards sold where paper would be?