Go card - deposit increased

[ozbob]

From the Couriermail click here!

Go card cost rises to thwart rorters

Go card cost rises to thwart rorters

    by: Robyn Ironside
    From: The Courier-Mail
    April 19, 2013 12:00AM

THE cost of a go card will be raised to $15 to try to close a loophole that has led to widespread rorting of the public transport passes.

As The Courier-Mail revealed last week, thousands of people have been using the $10 go cards for much more expensive train trips in a scam that has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Transport Minister Scott Emerson said an investigation showed an "increasing number of people were ripping off honest passengers" by touching off in a negative balance - particularly on Airtrain trips.

"It's unacceptable this loophole was allowed to occur," Mr Emerson said.

"The research we've conducted showed more than 1000 people a month at Airport stations, and up to 5000 people a month across the network, were misusing their go card by running the card below the $5 deposit and then disposing of it."

He said as of May 6 the minimum deposit would be raised from $5 to $10 taking the cost of a new card to $15.

Go cards were originally sold with a $10 minimum deposit following their rollout in February 2008 but the previous government halved that in late 2009 to boost sales.

Mr Emerson said the "loophole" had been growing since then, costing more than $220,000 in lost revenue every year.

Robert Dow from commuter advocacy group Back on Track said the increase was not surprising in light of the rorting problem.

He said figures from Translink showed as many as 3000 go cards were being sold each day - suggesting many people were using them as disposable tickets on trips costing more than $10.

"Increasing the minimum deposit will reduce the temptation to use them as a disposable card," he said.

[ozbob]

Minister for Transport and Main Roads
The Honourable Scott Emerson

Labor's go card loophole undone

The Newman Government will reverse a Labor decision that led to widespread rorting of go cards.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson said the refundable deposit on adult go cards would be returned to $10 after an investigation showed an increasing number of people were ripping off honest passengers.

"It's unacceptable this loophole was allowed to occur and I think most people were shocked to read last week about the level of rorting taking place," Mr Emerson said.

"The research we've conducted showed more than 1000 people a month at Airport stations, and up to 5000 people a month across the network, were misusing their go card by running their card below the current $5 deposit and then disposing of it.

"This loophole has been growing since the former Labor Government made changes to the go card deposit in December 2009, costing more than $220,000 in fare evasion a year.

"The majority of passengers use the system correctly, however some people are deliberately fare evading with no intention to repay the balance, which comes at a cost to honest commuters.

"This change will only apply to the purchase of new adult go cards with no change to existing adult go cards."

TransLink will begin distributing adult go cards with a $10 deposit from May 6 following the changes in the system's software.

Some pre-loaded adult go cards with the $5 deposit will remain in the market until the stocks are depleted which is expected to be about mid-June.

The deposit on concession go cards will remain at $5.

For more information, visit www.translink.com.au or phone 13 12 30.

[Stillwater]

The initiative is to be welcomed, but the tone of this media statement is disappointing.  The emphasis is not on the Minister acting to protect the revenue stream, but he is 'correcting Labor's mistakes'.  Forget the politics, Minister, focus on service and the customer.

[somebody]

Par for the course with politicians.  Do we have to have comments like that after everything a politician ever says?

[BrizCommuter]

The BrizCommuter word on the go card cost increase:
http://brizcommuter.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/go-card-gets-even-more-expensive.html

[#Metro]

Welcome the change Mr Emerson. And while i have nothing against you, its not fair of you to say "fixing labor's mistakes" as you just made one of the biggest mistakes as minister too, handing the bus review back to the council.

I'm not sure what the political payoff actually is with this Labor this Labor that. They don't have any seats anyway and if they didn't keep mentioning the opposition, many would actually forget that it exists.

For the record, under Labor, BUZ services were increased massively, a train line to the airport, integrated ticketing and fares, large increases in patronage due to that, TL was created and lines were extended PLUS the busway was built.

What has the LNP built? Not even close.
CRR, The Bus Review and Brisbane Transport will be their big tests IMHO.

[HappyTrainGuy]

For the record, under Labor, BUZ services were increased massively, a train line to the airport, integrated ticketing and fares, large increases in patronage due to that, TL was created and lines were extended PLUS the busway was built.

And under Labor 2 of those buz routes were very very poorly mismanaged when the lack of actual northern busway services emerged (the fact still remains that off peak its faster for the 330 to use the surface roads than waste time accessing the northern busway and marginal with the Airport Link tunnel) futher adding to the massive flaws in Brisbane's northern public transport. The additional changes used smoke and mirrors to look like big improvments were coming when all that did was futher p%ss away money that would have been better spent designing and running a proper PT network. Its just a joke that Chermside can have so many city routes yet the directly surrounding suburbs have to put up with hourly services and the best local feeder service for the train line, Aspley Interchange and Chermside interchange is run every 2 hours only between 8.30am and 4pm. And people wonder why the park and rides and shopping centre car parks at interchanges/next to buz stops fill up so early in the mornings.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Go Card cost rise to combat rorting

[ozbob]

Discussion on the deposit increase for adult go cards on Newstalk 4BC 1116 after 10am ..

[ozbob]

One way of sorting out the Airtrain would be to replace the readers with fare gates.   Wide gates would be needed.

The thought occurred that the gates also could be programmed to not open if a go card is in negative balance greater than the deposit.  Apparently the gates can be programmed for that, but there is a catch.  If a person has auto topup, the card can be negative balance greater than the deposit on touch off.  It is the next touch that activates the auto topup.  For example a person could have $6 on their adult go card.  The touch on at say Varsity Lakes, peak fare to CBD $13.81 + $16 Airtrain fare = $29.81 total fare cost for the journey.  When they touch off at the Airport the go card will go negative $23.81 ...  so this option is probably not going to fly ...  unless they ask the user do you have auto topup and do another touch sequence.  This could get tedious though ...

[ozbob]

go card refundable deposit is changing

--> http://translink.com.au/news-and-updates/go-card-refundable-deposit-changing

[ozbob]

http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2014/5/21/closing-go-card-loophole-saves-200000-a-year

Minister for Transport and Main Roads
The Honourable Scott Emerson
Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Closing go card loophole saves $200,000 a year

Honest public transport users will benefit from savings of more than $200,000 per year after changes were made to the refundable deposit on adult go cards.

In May 2013, the refundable deposit on adult go cards was increased from $5 to $10 to close a loophole that saw people deliberately running the balance below $5 and then disposing of the card.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson said the savings would be reinvested back into the public transport network.

"Queensland passengers are reaping the benefits from the Queensland Government's efforts to fix Labor's public transport mess," Mr Emerson said.

"Since we increased the refundable deposit to $10 there are now 20 per cent less cards falling below the negative threshold, particularly on the Airport line.

"Research showed thousands of people across the network misused their go card by running their balance below the $5 deposit and then disposing of the card.

"Savings from closing this loophole will be reinvested back into the network."

The loophole that led to rorting of the system grew when the former Labor Government reduced the go card deposit in December 2009 – before the first of their five scheduled 15 per cent fare increases.

"We've halved Labor's increases, provided free travel after nine weekly journeys and have added more than 1,000 additional weekly train services and 2,000 additional weekly bus services," Mr Emerson said.

"For the first time ever we have released daily on-time running figures showing reliability continues to improve.

"All day on-time running was more than 95 per cent in the January to March quarter, compared to more than 88 per cent during the last few months under Labor and former Transport Minister Annastacia Palaszczuk.

"This performance improvement has been due to efforts of Queensland Rail staff."

[ENDS] 21 May 2014

[ozbob]

From the Queensland Times 22nd May 2014 pages 1 and 2 ...

GO CARD CHEATS DERAILED

[ozbob]

QT reports 2500 go cards being sold weekly, compared to 3000 April 2013.  A reduction but still a lot ...



Running a go card to negative and then discarding is fare evasion, pure and simple.  Still a lot happening ...

[ozbob]

From the Brisbane mX 8th October 2014 page 4

Transport rort on the Go