Article: Monthly railway tickets slashed by RailCorp by up to $240 a year

[ozbob]

From The Telegraph click here!

Monthly railway tickets slashed by RailCorp by up to $240 a year

Monthly railway tickets slashed by RailCorp by up to $240 a year

   Geoff Chambers and Andrew Clennell
   From: The Daily Telegraph
   May 30, 2011 12:00AM

RAIN fares will be slashed by up to $240 a year - more than double what commuters were expecting after RailCorp found it could deliver bigger savings from a subsidy package.

Monthly, quarterly and yearly tickets will be marked down  9 per cent from July 1.

Commuters from Kiama, Gosford and Springwood to Sydney will save $240 a year on monthly tickets.

Those from Chatswood, Epping, Parramatta, Blacktown, Liverpool, Sutherland, Wollongong and Nowra will save hundreds  on  monthly, quarterly and yearly tickets.

The savings come after RailCorp said  the O'Farrell government's $20 million subsidy package - which aims to coax people away from weekly tickets - could deliver bigger discounts than the $108 pledged before the election.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian will announce the new fares today.

Premier Barry O'Farrell said the transport package was a direct response to cost of living pressures in Sydney.

The discount applies to both the MyTrain monthly, quarterly and yearly tickets, as well as MyMulti tickets, which covers trains, buses and ferries.

"The rising cost of living is the single most pressing issue facing families - and this fare cut will put dollars back in their pocket. I'm delighted to be in a position to go even further than our election commitment," Mr O'Farrell said.

Since 1995, train fares have risen by 64 per cent - almost twice the rate of inflation.

Mr O'Farrell, who has promised to introduce an integrated transport card, said he wanted to get more people using public transport.

The ticket price cuts target the 180,000 weekly ticket buyers who have resisted buying monthly tickets. Currently, more than 23,000 train commuters buy monthly, quarterly and yearly tickets.

"This change means cheaper fares and shorter queues. This rewards regular rail commuters who use the system every day," he said.

Ms Berejiklian said regular commuters would benefit from the decreased ticket prices.

The push to get travellers on the monthly tickets would also cut the lengthy Monday morning ticket-buying queues on suburban stations.

"I have repeatedly said I want customer service to be front and centre of everything we do in transport - and cutting fares and reducing queues will help us meet that goal," Ms Berejiklian said.

"I want to take this opportunity to encourage commuters who buy their tickets each day, or weekly, to consider buying a monthly, quarterly or yearly ticket to make the most of these savings."

[ozbob]

Interesting development ...

[#Metro]

Since 1995, train fares have risen by 64 per cent - almost twice the rate of inflation.

Interesting. Seems to be a pattern in sick rail systems, subsidy levels and fare costs go through the roof.

[somebody]

Seems pretty clear this is being done to reduce the costs of actually selling the tickets.  Monthlies will now cost 3.6 weeklies worth, down from 4 weeklies.  Notice no discount is being given to weeklies.

[somebody]

This is actually a common sense change, as in NSW apparently "Monthly" means 28 days.

So there was no incentive to buy monthlies until now.