New fare strategy - articles and discussion

[ozbob]

That is what we have been told Derwan!

And clearly that is driving some of the new fare strategy.

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail 17th October 2009 page 15

Fat cats avoid belt-tightening

[#Metro]

Executives don't need discounts to pay for the rail fare.
If I were a politician I wouldn't catch the train... I'd be faced with too many angry commuters!
The alternative was phasing out paper, waiting, then putting up prices.

[somebody]

As the fares will be on January 4 2010 I am comfortable with that.  BUT not happy with the projected 15% per annum as it stands.  The government is setting themselves up for considerable flack as well.  It is possible that these projected increases are part ambit.  By that I mean coming into an election they may say "we are only going to increase the fares by the CPI this year", to look benevolent.  

I've been thinking that too.  But it seems like a disingenious political strategy.  What if the opposition gets in first and says "We'll only raise fares by CPI".  Then the govt are stuck with their fare rises or need to flip flop and follow opposition strategy.  Of course, the first of the 15% fare rises kicks in before the next election, so I'm not sure what the plan is there.

[#Metro]

Oh, I really don't like this at all. Politicians! looking good but doing bad...

If someone comes out and says "We'll only raise fares by CPI" , this will slowly but surely run down the PT system or unable to cope with the massive patronage growth that is coming.
And overcrowd the system, and put a nice big fat deficit on the book (in addition to the one we already have).

Politicians!

[wbj]

Translink will need to increase the number/efficiency of card readers to the subway at Central Station or there will be ticket rage during morning peak just from conversion of existing commuters to go card.

[stephenk]

There are some further factors to consider:

Presently only 3 to 5% of commuters travel more than 10 times per week (source Minister of Transport staff information from TransLink).  With the go card incentives more may travel > 10 trips in the future.

The new go card fares are set at the 2007 paper cost.  So relative to that there is essentially no increase.  Yes there is an increase with respect what we have been paying the last couple of years but I guess that has been a bonus discount in a failed attempt to drive go card uptake.  So I am comfortable with the pricing of the new go card fares.  The majority of people their costs are no different to 2007.  The high use users will be paying more, but not overly excessive as the 50% discount will kick in.

I would disagree with the above comments. I'm a heavy user of public transport - average 14 journeys a week (4 of which are off-peak). I currently use a zone 1&2 paper weekly. As I've shown in earlier calculations under the new fare structure I will be paying 34% more in 2010 with a weekly paper ticket, and 37% more in 2010 with a Go-Card.

[somebody]

actually I don't go to any shopping centre where they sell GO card.

I checked here: http://www.translink.com.au/agents.php?sch=&region=Southern&func=All+functions&pay=All+payment+types

Chermside, Carindale, Garden City & Indooroopilly all have retailers.  What major shopping centre do you use?
[/quote]

[somebody]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

"Public transport in SEQ currently costs $1.2 billion and our funding won't go backwards - extra money brought in through the fare box will directly fund new services."

I want to know specifically what extra services they will provide, i.e. will they:
(1) extend some 66 services to RB&WH
(2) run 15 minute frequencies off peak on any lines other than what they currently do to Corinda
(3) increase any bus frequencies - Not sure which ones in particular they should be looking at.

Also, since bus commuters are going to be paying more, are they going to get any better bus priority, in particular:
(a) Coopers Camp Rd-Caxton St for services to the Gap
(b) Coronation Drive and/or Milton Rd

[ozbob]

That is what I said Stephen,  high use will pay more.  Unfortunately it seems that this fare outcome is predicated on the fact that 95% do 10 journeys or less a week.  I do more too and will be paying more as well.  

I am still hopeful that there will be further ticketing options added to the go card.  It is silly that they are not already in place.

Cheers

[david]

Translink will need to increase the number/efficiency of card readers to the subway at Central Station or there will be ticket rage during morning peak just from conversion of existing commuters to go card.

I am also quite concerned as to how the CBD stations (Roma St, Central, Fortitude Valley) will cope with so many more people using fare gates. I can already imagine lines stretching from the fare gates to Platforms 3/4 at Central. The gates are too slow to open and slow to close (not to mention that they take some time to think!). Plus they need to put more gates in where the old paper ticket only entry was on the Creek St side of Central. As for FV - well...there's no space left! I wouldn't want to be anywhere near there in AM peak! Other choke spots will be South Brisbane and Toowong.

Just as an aside, does anyone think it would be a good idea to install gates at Indooroopilly at the stairs from the subway?

[O_128]

^^^

yes david gates should be at indro. i think that we need a new gate design prefereblly the ones with the two halves that slide outward. 2010 is going to be  alot of fun

[#Metro]

2010 is the start of a new decade.
Smartcards, paper tickets abolished, more machines than people, more people, tunnels, Translink on facebook, twitter and iphone, pre-paid buses, bendy buses, super buses.

Maybe we will see automatic trains, and 24 hour services too...

Hmm. With all these improvements to let more people use PT and speed things up, wouldn't you expect the cost to put another person on PT to go... down?

[ozbob]

I have watched closely at the fare gates at Central.  Practised users at times don't even wait for the gates to close they just touch in rapid succession and stream through.  Sort of defeats the purpose as others without tickets can stream through as well --> what we call trailing!

The lack of gates and touch points is a major issue.   There is a lot more work to be done on the go card user and support environments I would suggest.   It labours now with about 1/3 using the card.  

[p858snake]

A nicer design that would make those gates "faster" would the old revolving door type where they were sort of a "X" designed and you walked into it and it turn around, although these would take up considerably more space but would be harder to evade the fares with these.

a small paint sketch of what i mean


a example of what I mean that when someone swipes their card it "unlocks" and walks though the bar would move up and then the next one would swing around to the next position.

[Derwan]

I have watched closely at the fare gates at Central.  Practised users at times don't even wait for the gates to close they just touch in rapid succession and stream through.

Yes that's right.  When the crowds pass through it is easy to touch before the gate has closed - and you can just keep walking.  It's actually quicker than going through a gate that has to open.

The problem is you don't really know if you've touched successfully - and you tend to worry that the gate is going to close on you.  Sure it beeps, but so do all the others and you don't know if it's yours that's beeped.

[O_128]

A nicer design that would make those gates "faster" would the old revolving door type where they were sort of a "X" designed and you walked into it and it turn around, although these would take up considerably more space but would be harder to evade the fares with these.

a small paint sketch of what i mean


a example of what I mean that when someone swipes their card it "unlocks" and walks though the bar would move up and then the next one would swing around to the next position.

yep this is what we need. As with what tramtrain said there is also a lag with the current gates of abput 1-2 seconds so i usually shove it open i still sont understand why we arnt integrating this tech into our phones and student cards japan has been doing this for years now.

[ozbob]

Media Release 18 October 2009

SEQ:  More ticketing options for go card needed

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 called for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly ticketing options to be added to the go card.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"The new fare strategy is clearly designed to encourage public transport commuters in south-east Queensland to take up the go card.  The inclusion of off peak options on the go card is a very significant improvement and is welcome."

"However, the eventual loss of the periodical paper ticketing will impact severely on many commuters and in the interim paper tickets are facing a huge cost rise from January 2010."

"The new go card fares are set at the 2007 single fare paper cost.  This means though that users of periodical paper tickets are facing very significant increases in their public transport costs.  For example the soon to be phased out 12 month QR rail pass for zone 15 travel costs $2990.  Under the new go card fare structure the equivalent go card fare cost will be $4320.  This is an increase of 46 per cent.  The projected annual fare increases of 15 per cent per annum for the next five years will further add to these financial impacts."

"What is needed is similar fare options as is the case for the Oyster card in London (2).  Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly ticket options should be added to the go card as further affordable ticketing options before January 2010.  This would also further encourage go card uptake."

"The go card environment also needs to be radically improved.  Some things for consideration include much improved administrative support, online forms for refund of fixed fares, stepped up education and help booths for new users.  An amnesty period for new users would be a good idea, particularly if the fixed fares penalties are increased (presently $3 bus/ferry, $5 rail, planned to be $5 bus/ferry $10 rail - concession half of those) this will be essential or again lots of grief in the streets.   More go card  readers at rail stations is necessary to cope with the peak surges.  There will be considerable flack from commuters I expect if this is not done."

References:

1.   http://www.translink.com.au/alert.php?id=173

2.   http://oystercard.110mb.com/fares.htm

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[beauyboy]

Thank you for putting out a media release about what will happen to the People that truely use PT as a form of Tranport.

The thing that Drives me nuts is that if Extra travel on weeklies is so low then it would have minimal cost to the government!

Donald

[somebody]

A nicer design that would make those gates "faster" would the old revolving door type where they were sort of a "X" designed and you walked into it and it turn around, although these would take up considerably more space but would be harder to evade the fares with these.

You might as well use the 3 pronged turnstile found at some sporting grounds (SCG, and I think Stadium Australia).  2 prongs point more or less down while the other one blocks travel.  This solves the problem of the turnstiles using up extra space.

Trailing is exactly what I would do if I accidentally got on a CityRail train to the city in peak hour without a ticket, so it seems a little dumb to fail to solve this problem.

^^^

yes david gates should be at indro. i think that we need a new gate design prefereblly the ones with the two halves that slide outward. 2010 is going to be  alot of fun

It's too hard to put in the gates at Indro now, unless you close the subway.

"The go card environment also needs to be radically improved.  Some things for consideration include much improved administrative support, online forms for refund of fixed fares, stepped up education and help booths for new users.  An amnesty period for new users would be a good idea, particularly if the fixed fares penalties are increased (presently $3 bus/ferry, $5 rail, planned to be $5 bus/ferry $10 rail - concession half of those) this will be essential or again lots of grief in the streets.   More go card  readers at rail stations is necessary to cope with the peak surges.  There will be considerable flack from commuters I expect if this is not done."

$10 penalty for failing to touch off is far too high.  It's as though they are assuming you went to/from the Gold Coast.  Touch off penalties are already a pretty large part of the deterrent to using the Go Card for me, I will be doing my budget on the assumption that I forget to touch off 1:10.

They should put fare gates on the Gold Coast to reduced the incentive to deliberately fail to touch off, rather than upping the penalty.

Also, $5 is more than the cost of the bus/ferry fare to the end of run in most cases.  Wouldn't the latter be a fairer penalty?

[beauyboy]

Why would it be to hard to put gates in the Indooroopilly subway?

Donald

[david]

My thoughts exactly - It would just be similar to the fare gates at Central from the subway.

[beauyboy]

I have to say why can't Go cards have the auto-matic price cap like the London Oyster

I am currently watching there podcast on this website
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/oysteronline/2732.aspx

It is not making me any happier with our Government I can assure you.

Donald

[ozbob]

Oyster card equipment --> http://oystercard.110mb.com/equipment.htm

[stephenk]

Media Release 18 October 2009

SEQ:  More ticketing options for go card needed

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 called for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly ticketing options to be added to the go card.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"The new fare strategy is clearly designed to encourage public transport commuters in south-east Queensland to take up the go card.  The inclusion of off peak options on the go card is a very significant improvement and is welcome."

"However, the eventual loss of the periodical paper ticketing will impact severely on many commuters and in the interim paper tickets are facing a huge cost rise from January 2010."

"The new go card fares are set at the 2007 single fare paper cost.  This means though that users of periodical paper tickets are facing very significant increases in their public transport costs.  For example the soon to be phased out 12 month QR rail pass for zone 15 travel costs $2990.  Under the new go card fare structure the equivalent go card fare cost will be $4320.  This is an increase of 46 per cent.  The projected annual fare increases of 15 per cent per annum for the next five years will further add to these financial impacts."

"What is needed is similar fare options as is the case for the Oyster card in London (2).  Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly ticket options should be added to the go card as further affordable ticketing options before January 2010.  This would also further encourage go card uptake."

"The go card environment also needs to be radically improved.  Some things for consideration include much improved administrative support, online forms for refund of fixed fares, stepped up education and help booths for new users.  An amnesty period for new users would be a good idea, particularly if the fixed fares penalties are increased (presently $3 bus/ferry, $5 rail, planned to be $5 bus/ferry $10 rail - concession half of those) this will be essential or again lots of grief in the streets.   More go card  readers at rail stations is necessary to cope with the peak surges.  There will be considerable flack from commuters I expect if this is not done."

References:

1.   http://www.translink.com.au/alert.php?id=173

2.   http://oystercard.110mb.com/fares.htm

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

Good press release Ozbob.

We also need to call on Translink to provide a significant improvement in services (as opposed to spin) to accompany these fare increases.

[paulg]

Agreed, good media release Bob.

I suppose they are trying to avoid capped fare products on the Go Card as part of a "user pays" philosophy where each additional PT trip should incur a cost.

However this fails to recognise that heavy PT users (and people commuting from the outskirts of the city) are not only paying higher fares, they are also spending more of their time commuting and are perhaps at the lower end of the income spectrum. A progressive govenrnment would seek to limit the impact on those people who can least afford fare hikes.

I was disappointed when they originally set up the zonal fare system and charged people (roughly) according to distance travelled. I think the fare structure should be much flatter, so that commuters coming in from the city fringes are somewhat subsidised (to recognise they are already paying a premium in terms of their time).

Introducing daily and weekly caps would have essentially a similar impact, relieving the very high cost increases that long distance commuters will otherwise face.

Cheers, Paul

[ozbob]

Some feedback received, thanks.

According to the table of how prices will rise, in most cases all fares will rise by more than 100% by 2014! This is nothing short of robbery and blatant greed by a state government desperate to attempt to fix it?s financial debt. Public transport should not be touched, meaning fares should not be rising to anywhere near these increases.

These increases will place immense strain on worker?s/commuter?s budgets and will tip many over the edge. Many will simply not be able to absorb or afford these increases and many will be looking at alternatives, sadly, in many places the car will be that alternative. A safe prediction is that we will notice a lot more motor scooters on the roads! The cheapest and most economical form of motorized transport. The government states that this will reduce the subsidization of Queensland taxpayers from the current 75% to 70% and that the savings will be used to improve services.

This will never happen. As a taxpayer, even if I was living in the bush and not benefiting from the use of public transport I would prefer my taxes to be subsidizing public transport rather than car races, (taxpayers subsidize the A1GP by $11.6 million) other sporting events and sporting facilities. If the government was serious about saving money, sport should be the first thing to go and/or suffer, not public transport.

These fare increases will do nothing to encourage the use of public transport and getting rid of paper tickets will also exacerbate this. How out of touch and contemptuous this government is to not have asked us about these issues. With these decisions the government has signed off on the death sentence of public transport in south east Queensland.

There is absolutely no integrity in this! What are they thinking?

And ..

The demise of paper tickets should not be allowed to proceed as this adds, for many, an unnecessary  complicated step to the process of boarding a train or bus. One will not be able to simply get on a bus or train as we won?t be able to just buy a ticket.

A gocard will have to be purchased, topped up and validated/registered first! Why does a necessary public utility such as public transport have to become so complicated? This will put many off and deter many occasional users from using public transport.

The flexibility, the safeguard and ?back up? of paper tickets needs to be maintained as my concern is that once everyone is caught up in the gocard ?net? and the paper tickets long gone those ?machine errors? will increasingly be described as ?user errors? and there will come a time when unused stored value will be forfeited after a certain time due to inactivity.

The new ?fees? will be steadily rolled out over time. A weekly management fee, an annual administration fee, a monthly ?some other? fee. A fee for when the balance gets down to a certain level, a fee for adding value to one?s gocard.  Just look at the govia toll way tag and it?s associated fees and penalties.

There will be no stopping them once the fall back of paper tickets is no longer there. This and the planned increases will alienate many people from public transport. I have a gocard and it works for me as the paper tickets are still there to ?keep it honest? and I also get annoyed when people seem to take an eternity to pay the driver with cash but those same people who fumbled for change disembark quicker than gocard holders as we have to touch off so it all balances out.

Any time advantages the government likes to quote would always be unrealistic as they never use public transport and they are coming from a perspective of ignorance! What we currently have is better than the alternative the government wants to force on us.

[beauyboy]

You have a very valid point there.

I would like to add my point that they are lacking the concept that city driving is the worst of all driving. By making inner city users (for that fact all users) pay for each trip it will decrease the amount of inner city people that go to the shops by PT after getting home from work. Places like eg New Farm Village, Toombul centro, Toowong City are used by people after work or on the way from work for shopping.
Lets face facts it is not hard to get stuck in a shops to miss a service that would of been inside the 1 hour transfer time.

Donald

[ozbob]

There are concerns with the distribution of go cards at the moment and quite rightly.  Not much information other than the initial announcements at this time.  There has been a committment to increase the number of outlets and points where go cards can be topped up.  The roll out of machines in the busways and major bus change points will assist.

Also I have received advice that pre-loaded go cards (eg. $10, $20 worth of travel) will also be available.  These cards will be ready to go, so to speak.  No action needed in respect of top up or registration, although the cards may be able to be registered if desired. I expect that these might be able to be dispensed by a dedicated vending machine as well.  And I expect will be available from bus drivers as needed?

If the authorities wish everyone to be using a go card then clearly the support for this must be put in place.

Auto topup will be useful for those with registered go cards.

[somebody]

There are concerns with the distribution of go cards at the moment and quite rightly.

You have to go out of your way to find out where you can buy them.  Sydney bus tickets have a flag-style sign at every retailer.  In the days of Telstra phone cards for payphones they had a sign too, IIRC.  This is probably the part that is missing.

And I expect will be available from bus drivers as needed?

Without this, the suggestion of removing cash tickets is plain rude.  And also ALL train stations on the Citytrain network.  So why don't we just keep the paper tickets?

Why would it be to hard to put gates in the Indooroopilly subway?

Donald

There are 3 options:
(1) widenning the subway and having a paid/unpaid section in the subway.  This still requires staff to be present in the subway and therefore is a cost to catch an unknown number of fare evaders.
(2) making the whole subway part of the paid area of the station and having staff and gates at both sides of the subway, which closes it to people who don't want to touch on/off.
(3) putting the staff and gates on the platforms at the top of the stairs.

All of these require more staff, which is probably the biggest problem.  The gates at Toowong aren't staffed very often when I've been there, probably only in the peak, so it seems like a lot of bother for the benefit.

[david]

(3) putting the staff and gates on the platforms at the top of the stairs.

All of these require more staff, which is probably the biggest problem.  The gates at Toowong aren't staffed very often when I've been there, probably only in the peak, so it seems like a lot of bother for the benefit.

I think your third option was the one we were all thinking of. The whole point of putting in fare gates is to allow more than just two people to touch off at one time. Most fare gate set-ups are capable of allowing 5/6 people through at once. Considering the high passengers volumes at Indooroopilly and the expected increase in go card users, the option should seriously be considered.

[#Metro]

Fare capping:

There are different ways to do this:

Option #1> daily, weekly etc.

Option #2> or like mobile phones where you choose $29, $39, $49, $59 for $x worth of public transport a month.
Which is much easier to advertise than the confused price mess tables and % discounts etc.
Everyone can choose how much to spend, depending on their needs. And at the end of the month, you have to recharge.
No need to think or pull out calculators (like many have done). Just swipe and save.

Emergency>
There should also be two "emergency' trips loaded on the card. Currently, if you can touch off and have a negative balance, but if you try to board another service, you will be rejected. If it is really late at night, everything is closed and you are in whoop-whoop, you do not want this to happen to you. You should have a chance with a second trip to go home.

Retail supply>
Go Card should be available, with credit, straight from Woolies, Coles and IGA. Almost everyone shops in these three places. They happily sell cigarettes, mobile phones and flowers. Why not GoCard?

[stephenk]

Fare capping:

There are different ways to do this:

Option #1> daily, weekly etc.

Option #2> or like mobile phones where you choose $29, $39, $49, $59 for $x worth of public transport a month.
Which is much easier to advertise than the confused price mess tables and % discounts etc.
Everyone can choose how much to spend, depending on their needs. And at the end of the month, you have to recharge.
No need to think or pull out calculators (like many have done). Just swipe and save.

London's Oyster Card allows you either purchase a weekly ticket (it is set weekly rate, not capped), or use pay-as-you-go and get capped at a daily rate. You cannot pay-as-you-go and get capped at a weekly rate.

Option #2 seems a bit odd- what happens when you run out of credit before the end of the month, do you call your boss and explain why you can't come into work? Why not just have the electronic equivalent of a monthly, or the current pay-as-you-go system?

[#Metro]

We'll it works for phones! And auto topup would solve problem #2.

[stephenk]

We'll it works for phones! And auto topup would solve problem #2.

Last time I checked, public transport was quite different to a mobile phone. So why not just have an auto top-up on pay-as-you-go?

[O_128]

We'll it works for phones! And auto topup would solve problem #2.

Last time I checked, public transport was quite different to a mobile phone. So why not just have an auto top-up on pay-as-you-go?

is it really? unlimetred call cap $49 = unlimetred trip cap to zone 2 $49. i still believe we should be integrating this tech with phones like japan did years ago

[#Metro]

Just because the goods are different does not necessarily mean that you can't be a bit creative.
And neither does it preclude the application of such a pricing scheme to other goods.
Who knows, we might just discover something that works very well indeed.

I can't use a hypothetical to 'prove' a point. Such a thing would have to be determined experimentally using small focus groups and trialled- much like Translink did with the rollout of the GoCard in 2004-.

Secondly, if I recall correctly, phones (all phones for that manner) used to be on a pay-per-call basis, with the person getting the bill at the end of the bill cycle. And there used to be pre-paids where you put $50 or whatever on it, and then when $50 worth of calls were used you would have to recharge.

Now there are pre-paids where you can have caps. Pay $50 and get some ridiculous amount of calls + text (like $300 worth). Yes, there are still charges for each individual call, as long as the cap is not breached, the charge will still be a flat fee.

It would be good for commuters because they could just set it and forget it. Visit the ticket machine once a month, or with auto-top-up, never. It would encourage people to use PT, because anything they don't use will be forfeited at the end of the month. If they don't like that, they can choose a smaller cap. Good for the PT administrators because anything passengers don't use can be used to buy another bus/train/ferry. And it gets everyone to pay up front, at the start of the month, which is more money for the PT admin.

Trial it. It might just work.

[somebody]

(3) putting the staff and gates on the platforms at the top of the stairs.

All of these require more staff, which is probably the biggest problem.  The gates at Toowong aren't staffed very often when I've been there, probably only in the peak, so it seems like a lot of bother for the benefit.

I think your third option was the one we were all thinking of. The whole point of putting in fare gates is to allow more than just two people to touch off at one time. Most fare gate set-ups are capable of allowing 5/6 people through at once. Considering the high passengers volumes at Indooroopilly and the expected increase in go card users, the option should seriously be considered.

Or you could just put in more than 2 readers near the top of the stairs.  Perhaps two outward facing readers, that would be a doubling of current capacity.  No trouble finding locations for readers at the other end of the station.

[O_128]

Just because the goods are different does not necessarily mean that you can't be a bit creative.
And neither does it preclude the application of such a pricing scheme to other goods.
Who knows, we might just discover something that works very well indeed.

I can't use a hypothetical to 'prove' a point. Such a thing would have to be determined experimentally using small focus groups and trialled- much like Translink did with the rollout of the GoCard in 2004-.

Secondly, if I recall correctly, phones (all phones for that manner) used to be on a pay-per-call basis, with the person getting the bill at the end of the bill cycle. And there used to be pre-paids where you put $50 or whatever on it, and then when $50 worth of calls were used you would have to recharge.

Now there are pre-paids where you can have caps. Pay $50 and get some ridiculous amount of calls + text (like $300 worth). Yes, there are still charges for each individual call, as long as the cap is not breached, the charge will still be a flat fee.

It would be good for commuters because they could just set it and forget it. Visit the ticket machine once a month, or with auto-top-up, never. It would encourage people to use PT, because anything they don't use will be forfeited at the end of the month. If they don't like that, they can choose a smaller cap. Good for the PT administrators because anything passengers don't use can be used to buy another bus/train/ferry. And it gets everyone to pay up front, at the start of the month, which is more money for the PT admin.

Trial it. It might just work.

[dwb]

@tramtrain

In 2004/2005
$ 600 million divided by 136 million trips = $4.41/passenger
In 2008/2009
$ 1100 million (roughly) divided by 182 million trips = $6.04/passenger
So yes it appears that costs to put an extra person on PT have increased.

I may have already clarified this, but I was implying that the per passenger km cost possibly hasn't risen as much as this very simple per passenger trip cost has.  I find it hard to believe it really 'costs' $6.04 to get me <4km on a bus route which even offpeak and counter direction is minimum 1/3-1/2 full, and overfull for peak.  If they didn't run empty buses it wouldnt' cost so much - ie listen to where users state improvements need to be made - not all urban bus routes need to go 15km from the city centre!

It was pretty obvious from the outset that the intention of introducing the smart card was to totally replace the ticketing system in a slow, gradual process. That process is now nearing completion.

Slow?? Gradual?? Its still not working right and they're seriously arrogantly topdownly (if that is a word) talking about removing the alternatives... and they haven't even offered any types of caps yet!