Article: Island ferry plans on the Go

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Island ferry plans on the Go

Island ferry plans on the Go
May 25, 2012 - 3:00AM

Southeast Queenslanders could soon use a Go Card catch a ferry to North Stradbroke or the southern Moreton Bay islands under a plan being developed by the Newman government.

But Transport and Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson said he was not yet sure what fare people would pay to catch a mainland-to-island ferry and renewed calls for Redland City Council to help subsidise local transport services.

During an interview with brisbanetimes.com.au yesterday, Mr Emerson issued a broader request for more southeast councils to chip in funding to pay for services.

He also railed against waste by the previous government, saying it had spent $75 million paying out redundancies to more than 800 Department of Transport and Main Roads employees in a bid to save costs, only to have staffing levels increase by a net 100 workers.

Mr Emerson, who has been the minister for nearly two months, said he was keen to act on long-running calls for North Stradbroke Island and the southern Moreton Bay islands to be included in the TransLink system.

The ministerial charter set for him by Premier Campbell Newman included a requirement to begin negotiations on the move.

Mr Emerson said the issue was discussed at a meeting yesterday with TransLink, which would talk to Redland City Council about progressing the matter.

But he called on the council, along with other local governments in southeast Queensland, to contribute to funding transport services.

Brisbane City Council stumps up $68 million a year towards public transport services, while the Gold Coast's contribution is $7.5 million and the Sunshine Coast provides $500,000, but others in the region do not help subsidise services, according to the state government.

"I am very keen for councils across the southeast corner particularly to put more money into public transport," Mr Emerson said.

"I think you do see the Brisbane City Council doing that, you see some money coming from the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast councils, but I would like to see councils taking up part of the burden of providing public transport in terms of that."

The comments were in line with Mr Newman's stance, outlined when he was Brisbane lord mayor, that other councils should help subside public transport. Former premier Anna Bligh and her then transport minister Rachel Nolan made a similar call in 2010.

New Redland mayor Karen Williams said last night she would look for operational savings in her council's budget to free up funds for a public transport subsidy.

However, she called on TransLink to first bring the Redlands up to speed with other parts of southeast Queensland by including island communities in the Go Card system.

"I'm saying we've got about seven different communities ... that don't have any integrated ticketing but they're still 35 kilometres away from Brisbane, like other parts of southeast Queensland," Cr Williams said.

"We need to make sure we're on equal footing before we start contributing [to a subsidy]."

The Liberal National Party MP for Redlands, Peter Dowling, who has been calling for action for years, said extending the TransLink network would help address island communities' cost of living.

The move would involve TransLink taking over responsibility for ticketing on the passenger ferry services.

The authority would collect the revenue and government subsidy while paying the operators to provide the services, similar to its contractual arrangements with other southeast Queensland transport companies.

Mr Emerson also confirmed the government was pushing ahead with plans to ensure people could use their Go Card to access the Brisbane CityCycle system.

Mr Emerson, who previously criticised the former government's 15 per cent a year fare rises on the grounds of affordability, conceded prices would still rise under the LNP's policy of halving the next two increases to 7.5 per cent annually.

However, he touted the LNP's incentive of free travel after nine journeys on the Go Card in any one week, saying it would provide a real benefit to more commuters who travelled to and from work each day.

The initiative will replace the original Labor scheme, which provided free travel after 10 journeys in any Monday-to-Sunday week.

Mr Emerson argued the tweaked incentive, to kick in on June 25, would assist 100,000 more people than the previous government's scheme did, based on usage habits.

He guaranteed that the public transport spending that had been tied to the next two 15 per cent annual fare increases would be maintained despite the LNP planning to halve the fare rises.

"The challenge we had is that the Labor government spent the money already, so to halve those fares is a significant move for us," he said, stressing budgetary pressures.

"People understand we've got difficult financial times."

Mr Emerson said the state's finances presented a challenge for the government but he would seek to focus on affordability, reliability and frequency of services in a bid to drive better patronage.

He confirmed he had identified "a lot" of wasteful spending in his portfolio but declined to outline what may be cut, saying various savings were being detailed to the Cabinet Budget Review Committee.

But Mr Emerson went on the attack over the Bligh government's voluntary separation program, designed to reduce employee costs, saying it had failed to make an impact in the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

His spokesman said between July 1 last year and March 23 this year, the total number of full-time staff in the department rose by 100 to 8984.

This was despite 818 departmental employees accepting a redundancy package, costing the agency $75 million.

"So they had actually back-filled all those positions, so in the end after paying 818 people to take voluntary redundancies we had 100 more people than we started with," Mr Emerson said.

"It's just extraordinary to see."

Mr Emerson described his working relationship with his departmental director-general, former Liberal MP Michael Caltabiano, as "good", despite the state opposition questioning which of the two was really in charge of the transport and main roads portfolio.

"Michael is working very well, the department and the whole team are working together from ministerial office down to try to get the improvements we need to see," Mr Emerson said.

Asked about the prospect of cutting staff numbers, Mr Emerson said the government was looking "across the board" for savings and there were "no sacred cows".

"I think that there are ways we can deliver roads cheaper and more efficiently – better use of taxpayers' money – I have no doubt about that," he said.

"We're looking to find savings wherever we can."

In coming weeks Mr Emerson is due to receive two key reports on aspects of the rail system, one of which will be the result of an audit of the city train network's reliability.

The other will be the report of an expert panel Mr Emerson commissioned to assess the former government's cross-river rail project, an underground tunnel proposal estimated to cost more than $6 billion if built.

The former government long championed the project as being crucial to tackling the looming capacity woes over the Brisbane rail network's only inner-city river crossing, the Merivale Bridge, but the federal and state governments are yet to allocate funding for construction.

Mr Emerson has long questioned its affordability, but yesterday acknowledged any long-term solution would cost a significant amount of money.

"I don't think the solution's ever going to be cheap on this. It's a question of how expensive it is," he said.

Mr Emerson said one of the tasks for the expert panel would be to look at whether the 2016 estimate for the Merivale Bridge reaching capacity was still accurate, and what solutions could be pursued in the short and long term.

He said the panel would check the LNP's pledge, as an interim step, to add extra platforms at South Bank and South Brisbane stations and improve the rail signalling systems.

"I want to see what the expert panel says," he said.

"It's part of the mix, for sure, but there's no point appointing an expert panel if you've already decided what they're going to come back with."

The Newman government has not yet withdrawn the previous government's cross-river rail submission from the federal funding advisory body Infrastructure Australia, which earlier this year found the project was ready to proceed.

"I'll get the advice back from the expert panel, we'll look at what they have determined is the reality of the situation and if it comes back that the cross-river rail project is affordable in some sort of model, obviously we'll be talking to Infrastructure Australia again," Mr Emerson said.

"But the reality is whatever we do we'd want Infrastructure Australia to be involved in, because the challenge is not going away; we're going to have to do something. It's about what is an affordable something to do."

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/island-ferry-plans-on-the-go-20120524-1z7jv.html

[ozbob]

612 ABC Brisbane radio

Go Cards for Moreton Bay ferries  click --> here!

Soon, you might be able to use your Go Card on South East Queensland's mainland-to-island ferry services.

The Government is in talks with ferry operaters to North Stradbroke and the southern Moreton Bay islands to have the routes included in the Translink system.

Scott Emerson is Minister for Transport:

[SurfRail]

If we put anything out, we should not forget to mention the NSI bus service as well.

[colinw]

If we put anything out, we should not forget to mention the NSI bus service as well.

Indeed. It would be a great day trip to be able to go to the pub at Point Lookout using your Go Card.

[Stillwater]

lol, and after you have used nine journeys in one week and the weekend trip to Straddie and back is free.  They will have to tow a barge behind the ferry to cater for the increased patronage.

The practical solution would be to create a Zone 24 for bay ferries and charge a subsidised fixed fare for the sea leg, normal Go-card functioning elsewhere.

[Golliwog]

I would suggest that setting it up similar to Airtrain and it's fixed fare would be the way to do it. Be interesting to see if it does get included in the free travel after 9 journeys cap... Would certainly do something for local tourism I think!

[haakon]

I used to live on macleay, a couple of car share vehicles would easily free up a number of car parks.

[ozbob]

Bayside Bulletin --> SMBI Forum backs calls for TransLink extension

[#Metro]

Does the local council there pay a transport levy? I think if you live that far on an island...

Cycling would also be worthwhile for looking at for local transport needs