21 May 2008: Call for free Sunday travel on public transport for pensioners

[ozbob]

21 May 2008

Greetings,

As has been highlighted in the local and national media our pensioners are suffering.  One thing that all State Governments can do is follow the lead of Victoria.
Please give our Pensioners free Sunday travel on public transport.  There are no direct costs, the transport asset is running anyway and there is lots of room.

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

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Media Release  21 May 2008. (A re-release of 11 May 2008)

SEQ:  Call for free Sunday Translink travel for Seniors on Go Card!

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport users has previously called for free Sunday public transport travel for Senior Citizens (1, 2).  Senior citizens now have access to a special Seniors Go Card (a red Go Card), and as a further incentive for uptake of the card and to encourage senior citizens to get out and about, it would be a simple matter to program the smart card system to allow Seniors free travel on Sundays.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

?Free travel for Senior citizens was introduced by the Victorian Government on the 27 August 2006 in Melbourne. This worthwhile initiative has been a huge success and when on visits to Melbourne it has been encouraging to hear senior citizens comment on how helpful it has been to them.?

?Recent announcements of the possible portability of seniors public transport travel concession entitlement cards around the nation make a lot of sense. As part of this it would make even more sense to standardise the concessions afforded to our Seniors.?

?Public transport in south-east Queensland has some slack on Sundays, and it will be no additional load for our public transport generally to make this service available.  It will assist the Senior citizens to get out and about, visit family and friends, and have more healthy life styles.  The Go Card will allow for easy implementation of such an initiative.?

?RAIL Back On Track calls on Queensland Government and Translink to consider providing free public transport to retired Seniors in Queensland on Sundays who use the Seniors Go Card.?

Reference:

1.  http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=52.

2. http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=567.0

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

From Queensland Times 23 May 2008, page 9.

Thanks Queensland Times for following up on this important issue.  The response from Translink is disappointing to say the least.  Other state governments like Victoria do constructive things for their senior citizens.

[#Metro]

Hey there,

Don't want to rock the boat, but I'm not so sure of the approach being taken here. So I want to raise some questions.

Victoria mainly has their public transport services privatized. I'm not sure what the farbox:subsidy ratio is in Victoria, compared to Queensland, but I would be interested to know. Why is it that vic can do it, but we can't? Does vic have more $$ to subsidise these things, than we do? If so why?

People continually say that we need better public transport. I agree.
Usually this means 1. more buses/trains, 2. more lines, 3. more frequency. Free transport- during special events, ekka, sundays is also asked (and I think not a bad idea).

We can have our free days, but for everything else someone (who?) has to pay for these things. That someone else is you.
Nobody is going to build these things if you don't pay them, unfortunately. I certainly wouldn't work for nothing.

Money can come from
1. Tax revenue and levies (good, but due to the "vertical fiscal imbalance effect", states are often poor. QLD is apparently running on a slight surplus... You can't raise these too high, people complain and it is electorally risky.
2. Fares... raising these is ok to a point, but too high and you risk losing passengers. In exchange you can get more funds though.
3. Development (building a hotel over central in the 70's to generate $). Doesn't have the electoral risk or passenger loss of 2.
4. Business on the side (advertising, rentals to newsagents at big stations) Doesn't have the electoral risk or passenger loss of 2.
5. Voluntary donations, community campaigns.
6. Debt borrowing- issuing gov't bonds or similar, but this needs to be paid back and with interest.

I am not necessarily saying that privatizing transport operations will be a good or bad thing. For example, you could look at handing it over to the non-profit sector, restructuring or just trying some new things (see above list). But I think the money should go into hard infrastructure (new lines, tunnels, automatic train protection etc).

Gov't funds are an unreliable source of funding. Transport would be better, in my humble opinion, if the reliance on this source of funding was not so strong.

[ozbob]

Thanks for your comments Tramtrain.  Many of the states, Victoria included, have recognised the wider social benefits of ticketing initiatives such as free travel for Seniors on Sundays.  The loss of direct revenue is a minor consideration, the savings in terms of less health expenditure would far outweigh that.  It is interesting that WA is pushing ahead in April by the look of it for free travel for seniors Monday to Friday 10am to 3pm.  I am sure they have done some financial modelling to warrant such a move.  As the TransLink spokesman indicated, it is something that warrants further research.  Rather than just isolating public transport, a whole of community approach can show a completely different picture and support for such initiatives.

Some people advocate free public transport full stop.  A number of places in the world do that.  I don't think that is achievable in our environment but nonetheless an interesting discussion point.  For an interesting read --> http://wapedia.mobi/en/Zero-fare_public_transport

Cheers
Bob

[Otto]

I like the system that has operated on the Sydney network for as long as I can remember. Pensioners can buy a ticket any day for $2.50 (price was correct last year) and travel all day.
My father travels from Lithgow to Sydney and back for a day out for the princely sum of $2.50...

[#Metro]

I think discounts or concessions (or free days/special events) for seniors or the community are a good thing. For example, all Melbourne Trains for christmas eve, christmas day, new years eve and new years day are FREE.

Why does Victoria always have the $$$?