Less than 1% use Airtrain

[Derwan]

BRISBANE AIRPORT, January 2: Less than 1 per cent of Brisbane airport precinct workers are regular users of the Airtrain rail service, despite the traffic problems plaguing the area.

Although up to 25,000 people work at the precinct, only 230 are using special discount Airtrain tickets available to employees, according to Main Roads.

Last month the Brisbane Airport Roundabout Task Force recommended six relief measures to the government, including encouraging more airport precinct employees to use the privately-owned Airtrain service and boosting its capacity.

Airtrain marketing manager Mick O'Keefe said the service was near capacity during peak periods and negotiations were being finalised for additional carriages to be added by the end of March.

"There's a lot of people using the train to come out to the airport because they know the traffic is so bad,'' Mr O'Keefe said.
Meanwhile, Main Roads minister Warren Pitt confirmed the contentious airport roundabout traffic lights were here to stay.

"I know there are many people who say the traffic lights have worsened the situation and they should be turned off. The task force has ruled this out and I believe rightly and responsibly so,'' he said.

Last week traffic was being diverted through signage on Kingsford Smith Drv to the Lomandra Drive-Sugarmill Rd ``rat-run'' that has long been used by cabbies and workers in the nearby industrial estates.

Mr Pitt said work would also start soon on upgrading the Sugarmill Rd- Kingsford Smith Drive intersection.

From: http://www.questnews.com.au/article/2008/01/02/23453_nc_news.html

[ozbob]

Thanks, very interesting article Derwan.

The fact that it runs on restricted hours would be a major factor, how do early start or late finish shifts use a non existent airtrain service?  Cost, even with the present discount is still prohibitive too.  Bring it back to normal TL zones and fares ...  and a timetable that provides services from early morning to late at night.

[ozbob]

See http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=31.0  as well for Airtrain.

[kwv]

Just like Airtrain, The Airport Link in Sydney is private why can't Airtrain have concession?

But then again traffic jams onto the airport especially because of The DFO Centre and the stupid roundabout and the costly Airtrain.

People have very bad choices on how to get into The Airport.

[Mick_L]

Hi Bob, and Rail BoT team...

I don't come here often enough.. must fix that.

Anyway a while back on another rail forum I had a few words to say about this topic. Thought it might be worthwhile repeating it  here and place it under the scrutiny of this knowledgeable user base  :

---8<---

Often you hear harping about the price of air train and its frequency and start and stop times. Problem is that this is a totally non subsidised service and what you are paying is the true cost of rail travel over this section of track. The operator will not run at a greater frequency nor later in the evening because there is no money in it for them. This service unfortunately is not a operated as a community service obligation and its where many get confused - there is a public perception that it should run at similar prices and frequency to the heavily subsidised suburban trains.

The government is also simply not going to take take the service over and assimilate it into the network - pages have been written on why this won't happen in other forums so I won't go into it here.

I think one thing that should happen is that the government sit down with the operator and come up with a compromise solution where the operator is paid a small subsidy to run increased frequency during certain times, and also run through to later at night - say at least 10 or 11 pm. This proposal should only address the frequency issue and not the fare structure.

[Derwan]

The interesting thing about the Airtrain is that without running additional services, costs aren't increased with increased patronage.  The cost to run a train to the airport is the same whether there is one person on the train or 500.  Increased patronage is pure revenue and can be used to decrease the price of tickets.

You could take a gamble and halve the prices.  Patronage would need to increase by 100% to break even.  Chances are the operator wouldn't be willing to take that risk.

Instead, take the revenue from the service over the last year, index it for inflation and then halve it.  This amount should be provided to the operator from the government as a subsidy.  The operator would then charge half the price for tickets.  Once patronage reached that of the previous year, revenue would equal that of the previous year (with the subsidy).  A further increase in patronage (which is likely given the 50% reduction in ticket prices) would be pure revenue and could be shared with the government, effectively reducing the subsidy - but guaranteeing no reduction in overall revenue for the operator provided that patronage does not decrease.

If patronage under the half-price scheme was to increase dramatically, the subsidy would be fully refunded, resulting in a significant increase in revenue for the operator at no cost to the taxpayer.  There is little risk to the operator as selling tickets for half the price is unlikely to see a reduction in patronage.

[ozbob]

G'day Mick!

Thanks for your comments.

Yes I think a subsidy as you have suggested makes sense.  We have long campaigned for something to be done to improve services, and reduce fares, in short make it more accessible to the wider community.

Subsidy has been mentioned a couple of times as an option by Government, but at this time for the airport workers as I understand it.  Derwan's suggestion too makes sense.  The present subsidy for workers does not address the poor frequency and service hours.

One could argue that the lease cost of the Citytrain services by Airtrain is already subsidised to a certain extent as it is the taxpayer and QR that have provided the capital investment for the trains and the signalling integration and so forth.  It is just a further extension of that.

In view of the congestion chaos concerning the airport, I think all rail and public transport minded folk are just frustrated at the failure to properly utilise the line for the real benefit of the whole community.  The Premier made some comments early this week to the effect of the huge cost of congestion to the economy.  Airport congestion could be greatly relieved with a ramped up rail service.

One reason that has been stated to us in the past by Government spin doctors as to the lack of services after 7.30pm is noise.  This is total nonsense of course, I live close to the main western line that runs suburban and freight 24/7, and in fact the passing trains are no problem at all (some might suggest they help one sleep well :-) ).  The services to the airport are just suburban units and these are quieter than most motor bikes and trucks.  Do we stop the running of these road vehicles to and from the airport after 7.30pm?

Cheers
Ozbob