Opposition Statement: No easy tickets for buses and ferries

[ozbob]

Tim Nicholls MP
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party
Shadow Minister for Transport, Traffic Management,
Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations   
Member for Clayfield            


5 February 2008

No easy tickets for buses and ferries

Brisbane bus and ferry passengers will be forced to buy their tickets from railway stations if the State Labor Government plans to cut Queensland Rail ticket agents out of weekly and monthly ticket sales go ahead.

The popular discount paper tickets are currently available from ticketing agencies and select QR stations.  Private bus lines also sell weekly tickets.

Shadow Minister for Transport Tim Nicholls said the State Government plans would mean bus and ferry commuters will have to go to a train station just to buy their tickets.

?Bus and Ferry passengers already find it hard to buy weekly and monthly tickets as Brisbane bus and ferries and TransLink ticketing machines only sell single and daily tickets,? he said.

?Instead of making the process easier, the State Labor Government is now forcing bus and ferry commuters to make another trip to a train station and line up at the ticket office, just to buy a ticket.

?Imagine the queues if every commuter wanting to buy a weekly or monthly ticket has to buy it from a station.?

Mr Nicholls said ticketing agents provide a quick, convenient point of sale for commuters wanting to buy their tickets before and after work, or during lunch.

?It?s difficult to see how this Government could have done more to destroy convenience and confidence in the public transport system and drive commuters back into their cars,? he said.

?The State Government should be looking at how to make the public transport network easier to use for commuters, not easier for bureaucrats to administer.

?The Minister needs to stop stuffing around and guarantee no commuter will be worse off under the new Go Card ticketing system.?

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[ozbob]

Accessibility to public transport includes being able to easily obtain tickets.

If the Government's aim is truly to provide choice between paper ticketing and Go Card why the limited places of purchase as highlighted by Mr Nicholls?