ASU News article

[ozbob]

From Australian Services Union News
available here --> http://www.asuqld.asn.au/pdfs08/20080821railnews.pdf

ASU DELEGATES INVITED TO RAISE GO CARD AND STATION ISSUES WITH TRANSPORT MINISTER

Yesterday (20 August 2008) a delegation of ASU delegates from QR City Train network met with the
minister for Transport, Trade and Industrial Relations, the Hon John Mickel. Minister Mickel invited
this group at a recent ASU delegate?s conference to share their insights on the operational problems
that effect staff and customers on a regular basis across the City Train network.

Our delegates conducted themselves admirably with the view to be as open as possible yet bringing a
problem solving approach to the table. Also present were key decision makers from Queensland Transport,
Mr Colin Hegarty and Mr Gordon Buchanan, both of whom appreciated the direct feedback and suggestions
brought to the table by our members representatives.

The decision makers agreed to address the following issues:

? Remove Operator Console?s (OC?s) as soon as possible
? Install EFT PoS facilities and credit card functions on all AVVM?s as soon as possible
? Agreed that servicing of AVVM?s need?s to be more responsive and effective
? Agreed that the direct information line and the contractor needs to lift their game

Closing stations so staff can attend TOT training came as a surprise to the minister?s officials as funding is
provided to QR to conduct the training in-house.

Fare evasion issues will be considered as part of the renegotiation of the TSC agreement as well as the
policy development surrounding new ?powers to detain legislation (currently being finalised).

The minister stated that it is unacceptable for rail customers to incur multiple charges when swiping Go Card
more than once and acknowledged that a better public education campaign should be considered.
The ludicrous situation where transit officers are assigned to man barriers but unable to Pin breaches when
wearing a orange vest was agreed to be looked into. Furthermore, the minister agreed that staff should not
be abused when doing their job.

A number of safety issues were also canvassed. Agreement was made that these isolated issues would be
taken up with QR directly. One key principle (which is at odds with QR policy) the minister made clear is that
if we support fare evasion then we are tacitly supporting further crimes on the network ?we must stop the
louts before they do damage to our stations and trains?. Currently there is not much station staff can do if a
fare evader refuses to produce a ticket or abuses them for asking. This union?s view remains that a significant
boost to the rail squad?s ranks (and subsequent visibility across the network) would go a long way towards
alleviating this problem.

Translink freely admitted that the changes associated with Go Card have been difficult and more needs to be
done, all agreed that good progress overall had been made in recent times from both staff and customer
points of view. Furthermore, Translink agreed to provide regular updates designed to target station staff
about further roll out progress.

Delegates also agreed that representatives from Translink should join the City Train Joint Consultative
Working group (CJCWG) on their regular meetings to seek grass roots feedback and report on progress. This
we agreed would assist in providing accountability and responsiveness to issues as they arise.
Today (21 August) ASU Organiser, Terry Middleditch has convened a meeting with the Manager Citytrain
Stations, Mr Mick Fair to discuss this issue next week.
The Transport minister is now keen to visit a couple of stations to gain a better understanding of the
operational aspects front line staff face as part of their daily work.

I understand Mr Colin Hegarty has recently been appointed as Manager of Go Card operations.

[ozbob]

More than two months down the track and the go card failure rate seems to be getting worse ...

[ozbob]

The minister stated that it is unacceptable for rail customers to incur multiple charges when swiping Go Card
more than once and acknowledged that a better public education campaign should be considered.

I would suggest Minister that is equally unacceptable for bus and ferry go card users to suffer the same fate!

Fascinating article ....

[ozbob]

The go card is failing on the buses and ferries.  Feedback this week confirms the situation is now diabolical!

[mufreight]

This computer based system should be able to be configured so that a multiple swipe of a card at a location would be ignored unless there was a later swipe of a card at a different location over a time span that would indicate that the card has indeed been used for travel from that originating point to the point where the card has again been touched off.