Premier Statement: Free public transport for a year

[ozbob]

Premier
The Honourable Anna Bligh
02/05/2008

Free public transport for a year

One lucky visitor to the Inner Northern Busway open day this Sunday will walk away with a years worth of free go card travel, up to the value of $2000.

TransLink staff will be handing out thousands of free go cards on the 'Discovery Day' at the new Inner Northern Busway and hidden among them will be a special "gold" go card that will be used to select the lucky winner.

Premier Anna Bligh said the winner of the lucky go card would be receiving a fantastic prize.

"Whoever gets the lucky go card can forget about travel costs on public transport for a year," she said.

"That's around $40 a week that the winner will be able to spend on other items for their family, their friends or just themselves."

The Premer said the $333 Inner Northern Busway was a winner for everyone who travels through the city centre.

"I encourage people to come along on Sunday and have a look at this great congestion bus ter,'' she said.

"We are spending $1.6 million building and re-building infrastructure in Queensland every hour of every day.


"The Inner Northern Busway is a prime example of infrastructure that has been delivered on budget and six months early.


"This busway means that buses will save up to nine minutes in normal traffic and up to 20 minutes in heavy traffic."


The INB Discovery Day on Sunday 4 May will be the only chance for people to walk through the Inner Northern Busway before it becomes operational on May 19.

A gold coin donation will be requested on entry with proceeds going to local charities including the Red Cross Caf?, the Salvation Army and Foodbank.

From 10am-2pm visitors will have the opportunity to:
? walk the busway and explore the two new busway stations at King George Square and Roma Street station
? examine the Wheat Creek Culvert - a rare example of an 1860s civil-engineering pr oject that was administered by the then newly formed Brisbane Municipal Council as part of Brisbane's drainage system
? discover remnants of a World War II 'bunker' command centre

go card facts

? There are now almost 55 000 go cards in circulation and more than 1.1 million journeys have been taken on go cards.
? The go card allows users to travel seamlessly across TransLink bus, train and ferry services without needing to line up for a ticket or find correct change.
? To use go card passengers simply touch on at the beginning of their trip and touch off at the end. The go card system automatically calculates the correct fare.
? Users can top up their cards online and over the phone, as well as at selected QR station ticket offices, fare machines at QR stations, go card retail outlets and onboard private buses.
? The go card website has recorded almost 150,000 visits, demonstrating the popularity of being able to manage go card accounts online.
? Users of go card also benefit from a frequent user scheme that provides a 50% discount on all travel after six journeys have been taken in a week, Monday to Sunday.

[ozbob]

 


They forgot the free travel coupon in this weekends Sunday Mail.

Pity the Premier forget to mention that the card is not working that well on the buses at this time ..

A few of us are going in on the 4th to check out the INB.  Well worth a look.

Might see you there.

Cheers
Ozbob

[Fares_Fair]

That would be only 21 weeks travel for me ( less than 5 months )
due to the huge cost disadvantage under the GoCard to distance commuters.

Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast residents discriminated against.
How 'smart state' is that.

and they are giving them away ... again.
Must be just sooo popular !
I wonder if I'll find one in Corn Flake packets next ?

They need new commuters to discover the cost impacts under the GoCard.
The average user dumps it after just 2 weeks. ( using the figures provided by the Government )

At least they now qualify GoCard usage by saying in circulation, rather than in use.

[ozbob]

Media Release 2 May 2008

SEQ:  $2000 ?lucky? go card card no doubt paid for by ?unlucky? go card users

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has said that the $2000 lucky free travel promotion go card for free public transport for a year to be won by a visitor to the INB ?Discovery Day?, is an insult to the present go card users.

These go card users are suffering chronic system failures, overcharging of their go cards, excessive fares, phantom fares, false penalties and where users can check transaction history for incorrect charges are waiting weeks for refunds. The problems are with the go card on buses and ferries in the main (1).

Of particular concern are unregistered go card users who have a very limited window to check their transactions and make a claim.

No wonder a $2000 lucky go card is to be won, such is the extra revenue being extracted from present go card users.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

?This $2000 lucky go card promotion is nothing short of an insult to the go card users who have been ripped off. No wonder thousands of go cards are to be given away on the Discovery day, sales have virtually stopped.?

?The go card system is in a major crisis on the buses and ferries.?

?Ten trip tickets are scheduled to be withdrawn from Brisbane Transport mid 2008.  This will lead to chaos on the buses and ferries. Passengers will not be able to reliably use the go card based on the experiences so far and will be forced to pay cash or somehow access railway stations to buy weekly tickets.

?The Queensland Government and Translink is in denial about the ongoing go card problems. The recent time issue on the bus go card system was hidden from commuters for about two weeks.  How much excessive revenue was ripped off from go card users during this period??

?Apparent secret plans to replace paper integrated ticketing with the presently unreliable go card are in tatters. The Queensland Government and Translink are fast losing contact with go card reality!?

References:

1.  http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?board=27.0

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[ozbob]

Anyone know who the lucky 'winner' was?

[ozbob]

I have submitted a request to Translink to see if there was a winner!

[Fares_Fair]

The way things are going with GoCard at the moment, 'winner' is a misnomer.
Good luck with the request to TransLink, Bob.

[ozbob]

Still waiting for the 'lucky' winner to be confirmed.  If there was indeed a winner ...

No response to my request to Translink.  What's new?

[ozbob]

Have received a response from Translink today, the 26th May.

The winning card in the $2000 go card give away was distributed on Sunday 4
May 2008. The winner has yet to contact TransLink to claim their prize. The
prize remains valid and TransLink awaits contact from the winner.

If you went to the INB Discovery Day on the 4th May and picked up a go card, check it!  You might have won $2000 worth of free travel!!

[mufreight]

That no one has yet accessed the $2000 go card is a fair indication of the useage levels of the card and raises a couple of questions.
Was this prize card actually handed out at the INB open day or is it still sitting in a bundle of cards that were not handed out in a box somewhere.
If it was actually handed out was it one of those cards that were taken then thrown in a drawer as a souviner or simply taken becausew they were being handed out and then discarded in the bin.
Was the card handed out to someone who has no intention of using the card due the the reputation that the card has for malfunctions.
Obviously the card has not been used as when the recipiant loaded or used the card it would have been apparent.
As a PR stunt it was obviously not very well thought out, at the very least Translink should bhave publicised the number of the winning card which would have prompted most recipiants to open the envelope and check the card number to see if they had been the winner but in all probability Translink based on their performance to date on the card Translink does not know the card number anyway.
Well it was an idea.

[curator49]

It all sounds like the "spin doctors" have been hard at work again.

Considering the Sate's budget deficit perhaps they couldn't afford to give away $2000. Considering the length of time the Go Card has been available the take-up rate by the public has been woeful. Just wait until the State Budget comes down. You can bet there will be dramatic rises in public transport fares as a "big stick" to force people to use the Go Card. We already know the 10 Trip Saver ticket is due for the chop. I reckon car registration fees will also see a big rise.