Ministerial Statement: Go card Parliament

[ozbob]

From the Queensland Parliament Hansard click here!

Go Card

Hon. RG NOLAN (Ipswich?ALP) (Minister for Transport) (10.04 am): The Bligh government is committed to building a world-class public transport network for South-East Queensland. Earlier this month the Deputy Premier and I announced that South-East Queensland would move towards a paperless ticketing system as part of the state government?s five-year fares and products strategy. Under this strategy, the TransLink network will be powered entirely by go card by the end of 2010. Increased go card use means faster boarding times, better on-time performance and more data to tailor the rollout of new services. Under the strategy, we also announced that TransLink would issue 400,000 free go cards loaded with $10 credit; introduce off-peak go card discounts of 10 per cent, rising to 20 per cent by 2012; double the retail network for go card purchases; expand the number of ticketing machines at major busway stations and interchanges; roll out a Seniors Card that will double as a go card; and introduce a limited-life go card for occasional users.

We also announced a new fare structure to balance the funding provided by Queensland taxpayers and fares paid by public transport users. There is never a good time to increase fares but it is reasonable and responsible that a government recovers more than 25 per cent of the true cost of providing public transport. Increasing this cost recovery to 30 per cent over a five-year period will help add capacity for more than 301,000 passengers a week by July next year.

In just over 18 months since the rollout of the go card, we have issued almost 460,000 go cards, had more than $125 million loaded on to them and had more than 51 million trips taken. Melbourne and Sydney authorities are still trying to emulate the success of our go card system, which records more than 1.25 million trips a week across the TransLink network. We have laid strong foundations. With a massive infrastructure program building busways and rail lines, a leading-edge ticketing system that has been successfully rolled out and a sustainable fare path going forward, we are now ready to take the next step and become the world-class system that South-East Queensland is ready for.

[stephenk]

Increasing this cost recovery to 30 per cent over a five-year period will help add capacity for more than 301,000 passengers a week by July next year.

That's 43,000 passengers/day. How exactly are TransLink going to achieve this?

15 minute off peak services by July next year, or government spin?

[somebody]

Increasing this cost recovery to 30 per cent over a five-year period will help add capacity for more than 301,000 passengers a week by July next year.

That's 43,000 passengers/day. How exactly are TransLink going to achieve this?

15 minute off peak services by July next year, or government spin?

By my calculation 15 minute off peak frequency for 10.5 hours/day would be 4 extra services an hour on the lowest possible method of counting.  Let's say they are counting moving Corinda-Shorncliffe services to Corinda-Petrie/Caboolture as no increase, Rocklea/Kuraby-Ferny Grove and back as 2 services/hour and Manly-Shorncliffe and back as 2 services/hour.

The problem with the above is that I am sure that a politician wouldn't count it that way.  Return services really count as two services, and given that the city is in the middle, I'd say 4 services (out to Manly, in from Manly, out to Shorncliffe, in from Shorncliffe).  Most likely is that they are increasing bus services, which is nothing to complain about, but let's hope they spend the money smarter than in the past.

[#Metro]

That's 43,000 passengers/day. How exactly are TransLink going to achieve this?

Easy. Give every motorist a Translink bumper sticker.
Get the joke?