New fare strategy - articles and discussion

[haakon]

I wonder if the off peak fare and the 50% discount after 10 trips will work together? That would make weekend trips really cheap.

[Jon Bryant]

It is more than just fare evasion which I do suspect is higher than 8%.  We need to create a system that can cater for upwards of 50% of trips (currently around 7%).  To achive these levels we also need to look at the whole image and experience of travelling by public transport.  If our stations are modern, attractive, safe, vibrant locations with high tech equipment then it will attract more people especially those who think PT is a social service and beneath them.  I am sure people look at an old unairconditioned bus and go "Really?"

It is a while a way but we do need to start upgarding our rail stations and develop TODs around them to increase usage.  Needs to go hand in hadn with service increase as well.

[#Metro]

Fare evasion must be stopped.
An unintended side effect of GoCard is that I think fare evasion will go through the roof.
There are no gates on the network except at just three stations: Roma St, Central, Fortitude Valley.

There are machines, and people are more confident at not paying when it involves a machine. They can just walk past it.
We need fare gates, otherwise all those savings which could do much good will be lost to free-riders.

It is more than just fare evasion which I do suspect is higher than 8%.

This is just the 8% they catch. What about the other ones that just slip through undetected?

Pricing should go to Translink, and with the minister having the power to disallow rises much like the current way health funds are regulated. Just looking at the graph in the .pdf link in this thread, you can see that patronage (and thus cost) is skyrocketing, but revenue collected had not increased much at all- leading to a massive funding shortfall. No wonder all our services were full!

I support a sustainable PT system: one that is Socially, Environmentally and Financially sustainable.
Its not sustainable if you only have the first two.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

No worms for Brisbane early birds

No worms for Brisbane early birds
MARISSA CALLIGEROS
October 15, 2009 - 4:13PM

The Go Card does not have the "technological capacity" to reward early bird commuters with discount fares, the State Government says.

This despite the fact fares will be reduced from 9am-3.30pm and after 7pm on weekdays from January.

The government today announced paper tickets would cease to exist by the end of 2010, with a new fare structure beginning in January to try and persuade public transport passengers to take up the electronic Go Card.

Under the new price scheme, paper tickets for a two-zone trip, taken by more than one-third of all passengers, will rise from $2.90 to $3.90 - or 34 per cent - while the rise in Go Card fares over the same journey would only be 38 cents - from $2.32 to $2.70.

Go Card passengers who travel in off peak times, from 9am-3.30pm and after 7pm, will be rewarded with 10 per cent off their fares.

But Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said off-peak discounts couldn't be replicated for early morning travellers.

"Right now we don't have the technology on our system to do it because fares are calculated when you touch on, not when you touch off," Ms Nolan said.

When asked why it was possible to offer discount fares ending at 3pm but not 7am, Acting Premier Paul Lucas replied: "It's a matter of technology.

"I'm not going to engage in a technology debate over this."

Translink CEO Peter Strachan said an early-bird discount scheme was open to abuse.

"If somebody wants to touch on at 5 o'clock in the morning and ride all the way through the peak and come out at the other at 9 o'clock that would be an off-peak fare. That's not what we want to do," Mr Strachan said.

"But we will have a look at that throughout 2010 to see if we can adapt the technology. I'm not ruling anything in and I'm not ruling anything out at the moment."

Commuter lobby group Rail: Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow said Translink had failed to explain how it would calculate off-peak discount fares.

"We would like to know how exactly the off-peak discount scheme will work but it's not explained anywhere as far as I can see," Mr Dow said.

"If you touch on at 3.15pm does that mean you need to complete your journey by 3.30pm to be eligible for the discount?

"I would be very interested in the explanation."

Questions put to Translink by brisbanetimes.com.au on how the off-peak system would operate have so far gone unanswered.

Mr Lucas did rule out replicating Melbourne's system of free public transport before 7am.

"Nothing works properly when you give it away for free. You have to further increase the subsidy that the taxpayer puts in," Mr Lucas said.

Mr Lucas said 450,000 Go Cards had been sold in South-East Queensland since their rollout, but users still only accounted for on-third of all public transport commuters.

"Using a Go Card cuts individual boarding time from around 11 seconds to just three and that translates to a time saving of up to seven minutes on an average bus service," he said.

"The new Go Card fare is the same fare paper ticket users were paying in July 2007."

The planned price hikes starting in January are designed to reduce government travel subsidies from 75 per cent to 70 per cent per trip within five years.

"For every dollar that a passenger spends on a fare, taxpayers spend three in subsidy and that ratio needs to decrease rather than increase in the next five years," Ms Nolan said.

"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."

[O_128]

well in all honesty this is a load of rubbish. What about school students using school rail tickets? why is there still no capping which would be much more attractive to tourists and why are major stations not going to be fitted out with gates seeing as the majority of staf at staitions wont have as much work to do.

[STB]

So, one could think a passenger could travel on an off-peak fare during the afternoon peak by not touching off until after 7pm?  Or am I getting confused with the 3.5 hour window to touch off?  In which if that was the case, then you would get a fine as you would need to touch on no later than 3:29pm and touch off at 7:01pm.

I somewhat have an inkling that I've just answered my own question.

I would suspect that the current rules for off-peak paper tickets will apply for Go Card off-peak fares, ie: the service you are boarding must depart from it's stop no later than 3:29pm and no earlier than 8:55am.  Thus, if the service departs at 3:28pm then you would get an off-peak fare and in the morning if the service departs at 8:56am then you would get the off-peak fare.  I would not be surprised if that will be the case.

[bris_chris]

QUOTE >> Mr Lucas did rule out replicating Melbourne's system of free public transport before 7am.  "Nothing works properly when you give it away for free. You have to further increase the subsidy that the taxpayer puts in," Mr Lucas said."  
"Mr Lucas said the State Government would next year issue 400,000 free go cards loaded with $10 credit upon registration to encourage take-up;" << END QUOTE

 Make up your mind Mr Lucas, you can't have it both ways.

[STB]

I think the difference there is that the free public transport before 7am would be ongoing and the free 400,000 Go Cards is a one off.  So there would only be a once off loss of income, compared with an ongoing loss of income.

[Jon Bryant]

I am confused.  The Minister says

"Right now we don't have the technology on our system to do it because fares are calculated when you touch on, not when you touch off,"

This can not be correct as how can the system charge you at the start when it does not know how many zones you are going travelled.  It can only calculate it based on the end point as this will set the number of zones.  If it a timestamp issue then that data is recorded (it appears on my Go card website screen) and I would have thought a fairly siumple program chnage to timestamp the caluclation using that field not the start field.

Free public transport would not be a loss in revenue it would actually be a gain from:
1. the spare cpacacity created during peak would fill very quickly with demand that is currently be discouraged due to overloaded service (i.e. the people left behind at stations and bus stops) and
2. it would reduce congestion and the need to build more roads.

I think this is called a Win Win outcome.

[STB]

Basically the system deducts the full fare if you don't touch off ($5 for train, $3 for bus/ferry, adult tickets) when you first touch on, it then modifies the actual amount based on how many zones you've travelled when you touch off.

I'm not sure what the relationship between the timestamping and the actual balance is, although they obviously seemed to have got it working in the peak hour.

[Jon Bryant]

It still does that final calculation though!  So it should be able to work it out at the end.

[#Metro]

Mr Lucas did rule out replicating Melbourne's system of free public transport before 7am.  "Nothing works properly when you give it away for free. You have to further increase the subsidy that the taxpayer puts in," Mr Lucas said."  
"Mr Lucas said the State Government would next year issue 400,000 free go cards loaded with $10 credit upon registration to encourage take-up;" << END QUOTE

Huh?  Make up your mind Mr Lucas, you can't have it both ways.

Well, people get a bit attached to their habits and cheap fares. Its a psycological thing.
This "grandfathering" measure is meant to stop people rioting I guess.

[STB]

I have just heard from a friend of mine in the industry that capping, weeklies and monthlies are being worked on and I suppose will be the next stage after this implementation.

Just have to be paitent and let nature take it's course.

[dwb]

"The actual cost of delivering public transport has increased dramatically in the past five years due but we've seen fares only increasing with CPI in that period," Ms Nolan said.

Nolan states the overall cost to government of operating/subsidising PT has increased dramatically in the last five years. I wonder what the cost/trip cost increase has been??  Ie the reason it cost more overall is due in large part to offering more services.

----

Fare evasion must be stopped.
An unintended side effect of GoCard is that I think fare evasion will go through the roof.
There are no gates on the network except at just three stations: Roma St, Central, Fortitude Valley.

Boll*cks! Fare evasion won't go through the roof. SEQ suburban rail will never be a closed system. I don't know of any in the world that are. I know of many metros/undergrounds, but most suburbans have some form of openness.

---

I have just heard from a friend of mine in the industry that capping, weeklies and monthlies are being worked on and I suppose will be the next stage after this implementation.

Just have to be paitent and let nature take it's course.

Absolutely... but not complacent or they might just decide its easier to forget about it.

But as I have stated before, public transport does not necessarily have to make a loss to continue to have public benefits that people mentioned.

Absolutely, raised fares are a good start to better quality PT... but not only does more money need to be spend on PT, and probably coming from less being spent on roads, but additionally we need to get smarter about how we invest it, for instance we could make the cost per bus passenger km MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper, simply by having some real bus priority on the road network and that in itself (although unpopular with drivers) would itself be very cheap!

[ozbob]

@ Haakon,  YES!  

50% discount will apply (if the go card holder has done the necessary trips) on weekend off peak fares will be halved!

[ozbob]

From the Brisbane mX 15th October 2009 page 1

Plastic all the Go

[#Metro]

Nolan states the overall cost to government of operating/subsidising PT has increased dramatically in the last five years. I wonder what the cost/trip cost increase has been??  Ie the reason it cost more overall is due in large part to offering more services.

Hmm. Lets see if I can work out the answer... from the fares.pdf on the website.
http://www.translink.com.au/fares2010.php

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. Though I need more information which the fares.pdf document does not have (i.e. are they all in constant dollars?). I would imagine that the costs are from new services, higher fuel prices, increased wages, brand new buses, busways etc.

[beauyboy]

We need to keep the pressure on the Government to make sure the capping of go card for daily and weekly tickets happens!
The fact is many people that include my other half & I don't have a car and do 3 plus journies in one day will be penalised. The fact is many of us that do this would of taken to the Go card alot quicker if the Government had put caps in from the word "Go".

Donald

[dwb]

So yes it appears that costs to put an extra person on PT have increased.

Well, yes I thought it would have on average (given the $$ increase in rail contract that were recently published) and presumably there are more people travelling further distances (ie growth on Gold Coast/ Caboolture lines) which must cost more than a shorter more local trip.  Also rising congestion has probably on average reduced the speed of urban buses requiring more buses/drivers to carry the same number of passengers, let alone more.

---

I'm surprised no one has questioned penalty fares and when and how these are changing?? For instance will the computer get smart enough to impute the touch off if you tag on to a new service in the same zone?! Will the low penalty be scrapped in Jan just as they're trying to entice new users?

[ozbob]

Update at Brisbanetimes here!

That explanation arrived late today, with a Translink spokesman confirming commuters' eligibility for off-peak discounts would be determined by the time they began their journey.

So what Mr Strachan is reported as saying appears to reason why no early discount at this time.

Translink CEO Peter Strachan said an early-bird discount scheme was open to abuse.

"If somebody wants to touch on at 5 o'clock in the morning and ride all the way through the peak and come out at the other at 9 o'clock that would be an off-peak fare. That's not what we want to do," Mr Strachan said.

"But we will have a look at that throughout 2010 to see if we can adapt the technology. I'm not ruling anything in and I'm not ruling anything out at the moment."

[#Metro]

The technology is probably so complicated that they themselves probably don't know how it works.

[david]

With regards to fare gates - most Gold Coast stations are capable of gating, plus I believe the designs of Varsity Lakes, Richlands and other future stations have incorporated a design so that fare gates can be put in. Toowong, South Brisbane and Ipswich also have fare gates IIRC. Most other stations would have to undergo a massive redesign in order to have fare gates, as the station office/AVVM's would have to be located outside the fare gates and stations with more than 1 island would need to have the fare gates positioned so that the other islands are accessible, without any confusing need to touch off and then touch back on.

I am also a bit worried with the number of touch on/off machines at stations, especially busy ones like Darra, Indooroopilly, etc. Will they be able to cope? The number of fare gates at Roma St, Central and Fortitude Valley would also have to increase in order to cope with demand.

As for my previous comment, it looks like I'll be converting permanently to the Go Card. I have worked it out, and it is cheaper for someone who does 12 trips/week in zones 1-4 to use a Go Card than a monthly ticket. The fare increases seem fair enough and I'm glad to see them post up a table of expected fare increases up to 2014.

With respect to all the programmers out there, why is it so impossibly hard to program things like daily/monthly caps, free travel between certain hours, etc. They do it for mobile phones, so why not a PT fare system?

[Derwan]

Many people are calling for capped daily and weekly fares.

Playing devil's advocate:

1.  Why should people get to take more than 2 trips per day and pay no more than those who simply travel to and from their daily destination? 

2.  Isn't 50% off after 10 trips in a week a fare frequent user discount? 

3.  Are we just calling for capping because it's just what we've become accustomed to? 

4.  Is capping fair when taking into consideration the strategy to reduce the subsidy for each trip?

[STB]

Oh dear, there is now a Facebook group calling for the Government to walk away from the removal of Paper tickets...

Quote:

Captain Anna Bligh and her government have decided it would be "smart" to abolish paper tickets for transport in favour of compulsory go cards...WE WILL NOT STAND BY AND LET THIS HAPPEN - WE WILL FIGHT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today it was announced that at the end of next year paper transport tickets will be abolished and go cards for all that use the South East Queensland public transport network would be made compulsory.

We have had go cards in use for a while now, but the system is still riddled with errors. An example being that you can touch on when you start your journey on a bus and during the trip have the system go down therefore meaning you can?t touch off (I?ve had this happen to myself frequently)?paper tickets don?t have these problems, unless on the off chance the particular bus/ferry/train station you are purchasing you ticket from is having electronic malfunctions ? this does happen, but for myself personally, I?ve been on one bus in the last 6 months where this has happened, and those that know me know how much I use public transport.

When introduced, go cards were said to be cheaper than paper tickets, so I brought one, only to find out that for the same amount that I pay to get a weekly paper ticket, I got use from my go card for approximately 3.5 days. Being a uni student, travelling as much as I do across the network, and not being able to work a lot means that I can?t afford to keep topping up every 3.5 days.

This isn?t just about me though; there are others who use the public transport system just as much as, or if not more, than I do. In this current economic climate, people can?t afford to keep forking out money all over the place ? hence why the paper ticket was, and still is the cheaper alternative.

At the moment, you can travel on the network during the off-peak time aka 9am to 3:30pm with another form of paper ticket (off-peak daily) which is yet another cheaper alternative to the current go card. And while when paper tickets are phased out and go cards take over there will be slightly cheaper fares between these times, 10% isn?t as great a saving as an off-peak daily ticket.

Where you are paying for each trip on your go card, you can simply get on and off as many buses/ferries/trains as you like within the allocated time of your paper ticket?it?s not hard to work it out guys, the go card, no matter how ?new and improved? this version will be, is still going to be dearer than paper tickets.

This time next year, during the phasing out of the paper tickets, the cost of the paper ticket will increase by around 40% - and will probably still remain the cheaper alternative considering that the go card fares will also increase slightly.

To those I've sent out invitations to join, some of you don't even live in Australia, some don't live in Queensland, most of you will probably drive, and some of you actually are in the Qld Labor State Government.

This is so much more than just a future increase in transport prices, this is about the fact that we are now being told how we will be purchasing our "tickets" for our transport system - and in the 21st century, nobody should be having their decisions made for them. So please help with this battle to show our government that we?re not amused by this decision. Join this group, write on the wall, send it to your friends ? and hopefully the government will sit up and take notice.

End Quote.

[david]

That Facebook group is slightly worrying - they have been misinformed by the media once again...

Paper tickets may be out the door, but the government is doing plenty to convert everyone to Go Cards (including offering free Go Cards to almost half the Brisbane population). Plus, there will be a limited life go card available for purchase in the event that a person does not have a go card. So technically, the abolition of paper tickets is not quite the right description - it's more of a conversion to new technology. It's almost like the times when the Australian currency was changed to the decimal system - there will always be critics, but in the end, people will become accustomed to the new system.

[#Metro]

Well now. 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. The cost of travelling on PT should not depend on what the fare is printed on or in- hence the phaseout of paper tickets.

I'm actually surprised at how total the gov has gone with this. So no-one in the very outer suburbs will be able to step on a bus and pay?
Limited life Go Cards had better be recyclable- people leave tickets everywhere, I don't want to see plastic cards carelessly littered everywhere. Maybe this needs a 10c refund like bottles in SA?

Interestingly, the fares.pdf showed price (at entry) vs car and sydney/melbourne fares. Er. What about bicycle? That must be the cheapest private transport around, apart from walking!

The facebook group-
1. Students get massive discount (50%) on top of all the other discounts there are
2. I read a study where free transport for students was actually worse financially and environmentally, because most of them live near campus- which means they switched from walking and cycling, to catching the bus!
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Subsidies+in+public+transport+van+goeverden
3. As our victorian counterpart, the PTUA website states, making PT free does not necessarily encourage use. Frequency and service quality are the main drivers. Evidenced by SA's free PT trials, and Brisbane's BUZ success.
http://www.ptua.org.au/myths/free.shtml

[STB]

If anyone is interested in the Anti-Go Card implementation/Paper ticket complete removal group the site link is...

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Against+Compulsory+Go+Cards&init=quick#/group.php?gid=153911829227&ref=search&sid=649851377.2213373935..1

[stephenk]

My current weekly ticket (Zones 1 & 2) = $23.20

2010 weekly paper ticket = $31.20

2010 forced to use Go Card (typical week)* = $31.77 - 37% increase!!!

*Monday 2 peak trips, 1 off-peak
Tuesday 2 peak trips
Wednesday 2 peak trips
Thursday 2 peak trips
Friday 2 peak trips, 1 off-peak
Saturday 2 off-peak

So even with the proportionally higher price hike on the weekly paper ticket, it is still cheaper for me to use a weekly paper ticket than the Go-Card in 2010. This is why capping needs to be introduced as it was in London. Transport for London would not have got away with getting rid of weekly tickets, yet I'm sure that Translink will get away with screwing it's most frequent customers.

This will make me think twice about using public transport to do things such as shopping or visiting attractions in central Brisbane after work or at the weekends. At the moment it costs me no extra, as I use a weekly. After the weekly is killed, it will cost me more. Yet again Translink will do the opposite to their aim, and make public transport less attractive for some users.

Given that I will be paying 37% more, then I expect a 37% improvement in public transport!

[STB]

I would probably suggest (and hope) that if capping is brought in, it will come in December 2010 when all paper tickets are removed.  At least my logic dictates that.

For me personally, I'll have a saving of $7.00 a week, with a window of those $7.00 to spend on whatever I want.

[#Metro]

I'll have a crack at this.

Many people are calling for capped daily and weekly fares.

Playing devil's advocate:

1.  Why should people get to take more than 2 trips per day and pay no more than those who simply travel to and from their daily destination?

2.  Isn't 50% off after 10 trips in a week a fare frequent user discount?

3.  Are we just calling for capping because it's just what we've become accustomed to?

4.  Is capping fair when taking into consideration the strategy to reduce the subsidy for each trip?

1. Some people might want to use PT for work or other purposes.
Just like a car, you can use it whenever you want. By allowing people to have more trips, this pushes PT qualities closer to that of cars- making it a more competitive alternative. Secondly, the price should be cheaper for off peak travel, because if it were the same, the service would run empty and make a loss (or not run at all). As we know, frequency is paramount.

2. What is fairness? Is it treating everyone the same, or treating everyone differently, according to some characteristic?
50% off is a big discount- you don't see supermarkets or other organisations do this unless there is a fire sale on. Could be good as encourages people to travel when there would be empty services, or it could reflect "political pricing". Alternatively, a person who wants to only take 2 trips will only take a 3rd if the price was lowered- as the benefit a person gets from more and more trips, falls. On the other hand again, why would you want to encourage people to take extra, unnecessary trips when PT is a loss making exercise?

3. People want certainty and convenience. Even if they don't actually need it.
Internet, phones, and even some restaurants are "all you can eat" after an initial threshold.
Fare capping is also easy to understand and predict. People seem to like predictability in PT, it makes them feel more in control of their transport expenses. So a strong case here.

4. Well it depends again on the definition of fairness.
And what are you trying to do? Minimise cost to passengers or maximise network performance and quality?
Paying for each trip discourages unnecessary trips, and makes people walk, bicycle or pay for their own petrol.
On the other hand, capping might attract people because of it's simplicity.
Set the cap too low, and too many people will use the system- leading to overcrowding and an undefunding (undersupply) of PT.
Set the cap too high, and people will be discouraged. Why bother?
It might be hard to change once put in place- but the idea has merit. People might not use all of their cap- and then this could mean less subsidy which is what the gov wants. This is why mobile phone companies delete all your remaining phone credit at the end of the month.

You might pay $50 a month (like my phone recharge) and then it is up to you to use $50 worth of PT or forfeit the unused portion to Translink. Monthlies caps, just like phones. No weeklies.
And just like phones, you could choose a cap plan or a pay-for-each-use plan.

[O_128]

Given that I will be paying 37% more, then I expect a 37% improvement in public transport!

37 extra peak trains sounds nice might happen in say 2030  

how about other incentives such as differnt card designs or integration with debit cards?

[STB]

My current weekly ticket (Zones 1 & 2) = $23.20

2010 weekly paper ticket = $31.20

2010 forced to use Go Card (typical week)* = $31.77 - 37% increase!!!

*Monday 2 peak trips, 1 off-peak
Tuesday 2 peak trips
Wednesday 2 peak trips
Thursday 2 peak trips
Friday 2 peak trips, 1 off-peak
Saturday 2 off-peak

So even with the proportionally higher price hike on the weekly paper ticket, it is still cheaper for me to use a weekly paper ticket than the Go-Card in 2010. This is why capping needs to be introduced as it was in London. Transport for London would not have got away with getting rid of weekly tickets, yet I'm sure that Translink will get away with screwing it's most frequent customers.

This will make me think twice about using public transport to do things such as shopping or visiting attractions in central Brisbane after work or at the weekends. At the moment it costs me no extra, as I use a weekly. After the weekly is killed, it will cost me more. Yet again Translink will do the opposite to their aim, and make public transport less attractive for some users.

Given that I will be paying 37% more, then I expect a 37% improvement in public transport!

Hrrm, I worked it out at $29.18 based on Zones 1-2, with the 50% discount hitting in after your first trip on Friday?

[#Metro]

how about other incentives such as differnt card designs or integration with debit cards?

What a good idea! Put your face on it, or a photo. Lots of banks allow people to do this already with their debit/credit card.
It would make it very popular.

[STB]

I have just read that Facebook's group's gripes is not really on paying more on the Go Card system vs the Paper ticket system.  But, is more to do with not having a choice in what you ticketing system you want to use.

Erm...Hong Kong anyone, the Go Card (Octopus) there is the only thing you can use.

I'm still certain the benefits outweigh the negatives.

[O_128]

I have just read that Facebook's group's gripes is not really on paying more on the Go Card system vs the Paper ticket system.  But, is more to do with not having a choice in what you ticketing system you want to use.

Erm...Hong Kong anyone, the Go Card (Octopus) there is the only thing you can use.

I'm still certain the benefits outweigh the negatives.

well we only use to be able to use paper

[Jon Bryant]

My two and half cents on the Devil Advocates questions:

The key here is that every trip that is made by PT/AT and not by car saves us 100,000's in the long run (cingestion, rad deaths, pollution, etc.)   The daily, weekly and monthly cap encourages more and more trips to be taken by PT and it becomes a way of life rather than driving.  The cap on my phone means that I do not hesitate to think about the normal calls I make. The cap should work the same way. Pay xx to get up to xx value.  The same would go for a PT Fare Cap.  People are used to their daily communte being by PT but revert to the car on the weekend (weekend serice levels play a primary role) but it is a ind set change.  They key is for non-commute trips to be seen as free to change the behaviour.  

It has more to do with marketing than fairness.  We have a long way to go to change the majority (97% of all trips) of peopls travel behaviours.

[#Metro]

I think there should be a monthly cap- only.
Daily and weekly caps are short term users. Monthly only caps would encourage longer term change. And there would be no need for all the awkward discounts on top of each other (off peak on top of a 10 trip on top of a concession concession).

People wanting daily and weekly, should have the pay per trip option.

[STB]

I'm curious, does this mean the pre-pay buses become irrelevant after all paper tickets are removed from service?  Or would it apply if you need to purchase a 'lite' Go Card on the bus and if you did then you wouldn't be able to board a pre-pay service?

[Fares_Fair]

Ahh, democracy Queensland Labor government style ...

I'm surprised that the Government is disposing of paper tickets so soon,
particularly in light of the many existing problems associated with the Go card.
Obviously they must have it all under control and will be able to stay on top of the
huge increase in demand on it's (refund due to errors and outages) helplines !!

Mark my words - it will be an absolute debacle.

I see the congestion at the touch on / touch off points every day where
paper ticket holders can cruise past the touch terminals, and the 2/3 majority still do.
But alas - freedom of choice and a simpler way of life is going to end.
I will be forced to join the queue by a 40% increase in my paper ticket 16 zone fare.

Even the problem plagued Go card increases 20% for me anyway,
so I find the fact that the State Government Minister and Deputy Premier, Paul Lucas - claiming
that the new Go card prices are the same as paper ticket prices in July 2007 as incomprehensible!
This seemingly without any qualification.

I am deeply disappointed at this hegemony by the State Government.

Yes, there are good advantages with the Go card, particularly for time-saving boarding of buses.
There is no such equivalent problem on the trains.
Yes, it will provide more detailed data on numbers of trips and destinations, but that was always available under paper tickets previously, if only for destinations.

I also looked at the announcements under TransLink's "first five years highlights" and note that the lions share of these increases certainly do not ease the burden on the Sunshine Coast. The Gold Coast is the big winner here, of course it has nothing to do with the plethora of Labor held seats there, and the LNP one's on the Sunshine Coast.

TransLink spent $298m on the Caboolture to Beerburrum duplication with no improvement to passenger services.
Yet they claim it as a highlight !

It allows for an appalling 375 extra customers on the Nambour line.  
Compare that to the 7500 on the Gold Coast line, and the multiples of thousands to all other areas.

More to come ..

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[O_128]

these 5 year plans are making us sound more and more like communist russia