Ministerial Statement: go card sales go through the roof

[ozbob]

Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
07/07/2008

go card sales go through the roof

Sales of go cards have almost doubled since the announcement a week ago of new discounts starting 4 August.

From Monday to Sunday (30 June - 6 July) 2,978 cards were sold compared to 1,631 cards during the same period the week before.

Minister for Transport John Mickel said the increase in sales showed the popularity of new go card fare structure.

"More than 75,000 people have already discovered the convenience of go card since it was rolled out in January this year," he said.

"From 4 August not only will go card be convenient it will also be cheap.

"Now that the system is fully rolled out across South East Queensland we'd like to see every public transport user consider switching to go card.

"We knew that bringing go card discounts into line with existing ticketing products would be popular and this week's sales prove it.

"Before the new fares have even come into effect people are making the switch to this new way of tra velling.

"I am very confident that as the changeover date for the new fare structure gets closer we will see even more people switching over to the go card."

From 4 August discounts of up to 67.5% will apply to go card travel.

All go card users will receive an upfront discount of at least 20% and as much as 35% off all travel regardless of the number of trips taken.

A 50% discount will also apply on top of the upfront discount when passengers travel more than 10 times in a single week from Monday to Sunday.

That means that public transport users travelling to the city from places like Nambour, Landsborough, Robina, Nerang and Gatton will receive a discount of up to 67.5% if they have qualified for the frequent user scheme.

For example, public transport users travelling from Robina or Caloundra to the city on go card would have their fare cut from $11.50 to just $3.74 if they have qualified for the frequent user scheme.

7 July, 2008

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[GOody]

Haha, spin, spin, spin. I'm almost dizzy now!

The classic line:

""We knew that bringing go card discounts into line with existing ticketing products would be popular and this week's sales prove it."

Yep, so why didn't they know that 6 months ago when the goCard feedback already was pointing towards it being a dud due to the fare structure.

[dwb]

They didn't do it six months ago because they didn't want massive uptake 6 months ago because they knew it wasn't ready for the task, the launch date was clearly politically motivated and forced what was essentially an open trial earlier that perhaps would have been best.