Boycott Protest against 15% annual fare hikes.

[Fares_Fair]

Hello All,

I have heard serious talk (first hand) that there may be a boycott protest against the 15% annual fare hikes.
The commuters are planning are day away from the train services to register their dissatisfaction with the levels of service and the accompanying increased costs.
They say it is planned for Thursday in the next few weeks.

The talk was for it to occur on all lines.
An ambitious plan to say the least.

It has been sparked by trains with no air conditioning in carriages running express from Bowen Hills to Caboolture on a number of occasions in recent weeks.
Apparently the same problem occurred in IMU 8107 and IMU 8106 for a few weeks in a row.
People were forced to stand in the doorways and hold them open, to allow the air conditioning from adjacent carriages to flow through or suffer the same stale air for 45 minutes
in a carriage with all seats occupied and a number of pax standing.

Commuters are also associating the fare hikes with an improvement in services and service which hasn't occurred.
The anger over the Sunshine Coast timetables issue hasn't helped with that.
The advertised line of 305,000 extra weekly seats just doesn't cut it with commuters.
It's seen as the usual 'spin' of trying to make it sound better than it really isn't !

The abolition of season tickets has also been raised as a point of contention.
They were calling for 6 month and 12 month tickets to be returned.
If I were them, I would lobby for capped go card equivalents - perhaps something more possible if the card is as smart as they say.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[ozbob]

In Melbourne during heat waves in my youth we just kept the doors open on the red Tait sets ..  different world then,



I too expect the air conditioning to be operable these days as we are in sealed containers.   A factor in the recent issues may be damage due to the floods and very wet conditions experienced.

We have always pushed for capping - daily and periodical, the go card is here to stay by the looks of things so I suggest this is the way forward.  The public does want it, whether purists don't is largely irrelevant in the general sense - that is what the masses want.

I am not sure how successful a 'boycott' would be in an absolute sense, but would get some publicity and that is always useful.

PS.  Can you see why in the 1940s - 1960s these trains had very minimal dwell times?  LOLOL

[HappyTrainGuy]

Note to self. Catch train on Thursdays 

[Fares_Fair]

I agree Bob,

We had a week of free train travel due to the floods.

The cynic in me suspects it was because of problems with the flooded infrastructure and not a true gesture of goodwill by the government to flood affected victims.
I saw it as more government 'spin', taking advantage of a disaster to make themselves look compassionate.
It's sad that I see it that way but it fits perfectly with the ways of this State Government.

A day's boycott would probably not hurt TRANSLink financially, but would be symbolic of the depth of feeling should it go ahead.

We saw a busy platform at 6:00am Landsborough station on the Ch. 7 Local News just 2 weeks ago.
That would then be contrasted with an empty one at the same time on the 'boycott' day.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[#Metro]

PS.  Can you see why in the 1940s - 1960s these trains had very minimal dwell times?  LOLOL

It's amazing to think that more people caught trains then than they do now.
You could never have the door open now- safety reasons and liability.

I hope that Melbourne-style air conditioning woes can be avoided in Brisbane. We don't seem to have had half the problems Melbourne has, so we are very lucky.

I don't mind paying more if my PT is more frequent. Unfortunately a seat has not popped up near me, and has not done so for years.

[Stillwater]

Mr Powell and his Opposition mates wouldn't be part of this boycott, would he?  Particularly given that he and the Opposition shadow Public Transport Minister plan a visit up the coast.  On boycott day, perhaps?  Or the day after?

[Otto]

The only change in seats near where I live in recent years are the ones that disappeared on Sundays.. 

[Gazza]

This boycott reminds me of the "don't buy petrol for a day to protest against the gouging oil companies".

[Fares_Fair]

Mr Powell and his Opposition mates wouldn't be part of this boycott, would he?  Particularly given that he and the Opposition shadow Public Transport Minister plan a visit up the coast.  On boycott day, perhaps?  Or the day after?

This is being organised by a regular commuter on the rail services.
It is, to the best of my knowledge, a genuine protest by disgruntled commuters
and not a political stunt arranged by politicians.

It rails against (excuse the intended pun) the 15% annual fare hikes and demands season ticket discounts as used to occur under the paper system.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Stillwater]

Thanks for that.  It is good that this is a people's movement and something that is organised at commuter level.  If people allow themselves to become a sort of rent-a-crowd for some LNP stooges who want to throw rotten eggs at the government over the Sunny Coast Line and timetable, and little else, then the agitation by those here becomes politicised and government members will discount the representation as political pot-stirring.

[nocost]

I'm with you. Seems 17 March is a day of protest. What about some non-violent resistance. Just don't touch on/off. Show that we won't cop endless fare hikes. All Translink fares go is paying the lease of the go-card system anyway. Yes, we don't even own it. The ongoing costs of maintaining it, not to mention the $100's millions of establishing go-card is crazy.
We would save money if public transport was free! Think of it.

[ozbob]

Fare evasion is something we don't support.  The proposed boycott of rail services by some is their choice, we strongly support a review of the fare structure and ticketing on the TransLink network as stated in todays' release though.  Our position on this has been clear for a number of years now.

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