Event Transport

[SurfRail]

I earnestly believe that unless there is some legitimate reason for it, the entire TransLink network should be free to use for those attending events that are bundled with "free" travel.

It is completely illogical that I can catch a train to something in Brisbane from Robina or Landsborough for free, yet I can't get a 555 from Springwood.  We aren't talking about extra services here, but access to the normal network.

Legitimate reasons in my mind would be very few - the only 2 off-hand would be:
- Ferries being overloaded in the inner city
- Airtrain (which is not part of the ticketing system)

I don't regard the RNA's excuses as legitimate - they should be made to pay for free Ekka travel and consequently bump up their prices by a few bucks, by law.  It should be much less of an increase for everybody than the $6 we make people jump through silly hoops to pay for doing the right thing by not driving in.

What I would like to know is this - why is there any distinction between different operators' services at all?  It is the same pot of money paying for everything.  Appreciate it if we could maybe do some digging on this at an official level.

[AnonymouslyBad]

A lot of events are free travel throughout the network, aren't they? Depends on the event or (more commonly) the venue.

It seems to be very long running venues that have "segmented" free travel. They made these arrangements pre-Translink yet somehow, 15 years later, those arrangements seem to be unchanged.

I'm just speculating here but it wouldn't surprise me if some events/venues are still dealing with QR (or BCC) directly to this day. History shows these two operators can largely do what they like. If they go to TL saying "we're putting on free services which are already fully funded" what's TL going to do? Tell them they can't? Yeah, nah.

I don't regard the RNA's excuses as legitimate - they should be made to pay for free Ekka travel and consequently bump up their prices by a few bucks, by law.  It should be much less of an increase for everybody than the $6 we make people jump through silly hoops to pay for doing the right thing by not driving in.

Eh, I'm in two minds about free event travel in general. Maybe it's the implementation (see above ), but the whole thing feels like a bit of a throwback to the 90s, when all across Australia CBDs were dead zones and trains a foreign place to most. Free travel to events isn't the hallmark of a mature, well used public transport system. Not that Brisbane's PT is great, but it should've grown out of that!

It'd be interesting to see how much difference free event travel actually makes in terms of PT mode share. I suspect for Suncorp Stadium, the Gabba, RNA, etc., there's little impact. Will people actually try to drive (or not go at all) because a train costs $3? I don't think so. Everyone's on a budget, but travel's assumed to cost money. When it doesn't that's a nice bonus, happily accepted, not much more.

[Cleveland Line]

It'd be interesting to see how much difference free event travel actually makes in terms of PT mode share. I suspect for Suncorp Stadium, the Gabba, RNA, etc., there's little impact. Will people actually try to drive (or not go at all) because a train costs $3? I don't think so. Everyone's on a budget, but travel's assumed to cost money. When it doesn't that's a nice bonus, happily accepted, not much more.

It may not just be the actual cost but convenience of free too- no hassle with tickets or go cards for attendees who aren't regular commuters, visitors etc

[Cazza]

^That's most likely it. Down in Sydney, games at the SCG aren't covered by transport. At the bus interchange there (for the shuttles to Central), there are attendants having to tell people to have their Opal Cards ready, but they still only open the front doors for boarding! It takes forever to people to funnel down the queue with only 3 buses boarding at a time.

[SurfRail]

A lot of events are free travel throughout the network, aren't they? Depends on the event or (more commonly) the venue.

It seems to be very long running venues that have "segmented" free travel. They made these arrangements pre-Translink yet somehow, 15 years later, those arrangements seem to be unchanged.

I'm just speculating here but it wouldn't surprise me if some events/venues are still dealing with QR (or BCC) directly to this day. History shows these two operators can largely do what they like. If they go to TL saying "we're putting on free services which are already fully funded" what's TL going to do? Tell them they can't? Yeah, nah.

We aren't talking about extras, we're talking about the standard, existing route network.  Again, it's all one pot of money that pays for it - if the state is happy to send me to Ipswich for free, it should be happy to send me to Capalaba for the same amount I'm not paying - happier in fact since it's actually cheaper to pay Transdev to run a bus than QR to run a train (not that that matters).

Eh, I'm in two minds about free event travel in general. Maybe it's the implementation (see above ), but the whole thing feels like a bit of a throwback to the 90s, when all across Australia CBDs were dead zones and trains a foreign place to most. Free travel to events isn't the hallmark of a mature, well used public transport system. Not that Brisbane's PT is great, but it should've grown out of that!

It'd be interesting to see how much difference free event travel actually makes in terms of PT mode share. I suspect for Suncorp Stadium, the Gabba, RNA, etc., there's little impact. Will people actually try to drive (or not go at all) because a train costs $3? I don't think so. Everyone's on a budget, but travel's assumed to cost money. When it doesn't that's a nice bonus, happily accepted, not much more.

That's really not the point.  The point here is 2-fold:

1. If you want to clear a major venue quickly, the last thing you want to do is have people faffing around with tickets at the point of boarding or entering a station.  Historically the system has completely overloaded in very predictable situations because this was not sorted out properly (NYE, Riverfire etc).  It is a major logistical problem which can be solved by making the promoter account for the burden they cause to the network where one is readily identifiable.  The old TTA legislation had specific provisions dealing with this, I can't remember if TOPTA does without looking.  It was never used on the RNA for probably some spurious reason about people wanting to drive to Gregory Terrace from Muckadilla or somewhere and the RNA not wanting to penalise them by upping ticket prices to cover transport they might not use.

2. Having different business rules depending on who pays the wages of the driver of the bus is extremely poor for customer service and ease of understanding.  Either you do it for everything or not at all.  Consistency is something seriously lacking in this state, and it shows in nearly everything, especially public facing information that is meant to be "integrated".

It all comes back to the silo mentality that never actually went away, but it's particularly silly when the ticketing system is integrated.