Golliwog's Fare System

[Golliwog]

Fare structure

I'd prefer a distance based fare system with price bands maybe 2km wide for a first 5-10 bands, widening out to 5km bands. But I doubt that would happen, or be popular until we had a reasonable orbital PT network, so I would support sticking to the current zonal system, with the current discrepancies ironed out (eg: FG train station zone 3, FG bus interchange zone 4, should both be zone 3/4), but maybe do that by adding a little more 'fuzz' to boundaries so that similar to Melbourne there's an overlap area. This does already exist to some extent in some places, eg: with some bus stops in Keperra being zone 3/4 so that passengers on route 367 from Upper Kedron aren't slugged a 2 zone fare to get to the Great Western.

Fare products

I'd scrap the 9 then free, and put in a daily discount. I'm thinking something like 2 paid journeys (peak and/or offpeak) then all journeys for the rest of the day have a 50% discount applied. I'm trying to provide some kind of incentive to use the network more, but avoid the rorting that can/does happen with the 9 then free with people taking deceptive trips early in the week to get discounts on trips to/from work later in the week. Some of these are legitimate, but I know of people who would take a few co-workers go cards with them on the lunch break and use each for a leg of the trip so that each got 1 journey, while only 1 person spent a little time going around on a bus.

Fare levels

I'm not going to specify this, but some of the other fare level's posted look good. Basically dropping the flag fall is the important part. Keep off peak, and make it a 40-50% discount. Not sure if adding in a shoulder-peak fare is worth the complexity, I'd rather just have peak and off peak and maybe make an off-peak fare period before the AM peak.

Fare concessions

I'd keep concessions as they are, but add in Health care cards to make us in line with other states. I'd also aim to make concession go cards 'easier' to get and encourage Translink to work with education institutions to creat a student card+go card (like the seniors card that exists currently). Alternatively, the new smart card drivers licenses I believe have RFID in them. Not 100% sure on that, but I can see civil libertarians not being fans of that.

Ticketing system

Scrap paper! It should be go card only, though the network of go card retailers needs to be expanded. If top ups are to be done on buses, then I don't support putting a fee on that, but considering what has been said on this forum about how long a top up on a bus can take, then I support finding a way to make that something not needed, or something that can be sped up.

[somebody]

Fare products

I'd scrap the 9 then free, and put in a daily discount. I'm thinking something like 2 paid journeys (peak and/or offpeak) then all journeys for the rest of the day have a 50% discount applied. I'm trying to provide some kind of incentive to use the network more, but avoid the rorting that can/does happen with the 9 then free with people taking deceptive trips early in the week to get discounts on trips to/from work later in the week. Some of these are legitimate, but I know of people who would take a few co-workers go cards with them on the lunch break and use each for a leg of the trip so that each got 1 journey, while only 1 person spent a little time going around on a bus.

Umm, isn't this a rortable feature?  Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast commuters can do a trip between two bus stops at lunch and then get a trip home at 50% off.  Ipswich and Caboolture, same.

Fare levels

I'm not going to specify this, but some of the other fare level's posted look good. Basically dropping the flag fall is the important part. Keep off peak, and make it a 40-50% discount. Not sure if adding in a shoulder-peak fare is worth the complexity, I'd rather just have peak and off peak and maybe make an off-peak fare period before the AM peak.

Even 50% is less of a discount than FUD+off peak was before they changed the FUD to 100% discount.

Scrap paper! It should be go card only, though the network of go card retailers needs to be expanded. If top ups are to be done on buses, then I don't support putting a fee on that, but considering what has been said on this forum about how long a top up on a bus can take, then I support finding a way to make that something not needed, or something that can be sped up.

Absolutely.

[Golliwog]

But they're at least still paying for it. Under the current set up, if they do a lunch trip Monday-Wednesday, then trips to and from work on Thursday and Friday are free (4 free journeys to/from CBD). Under 2 then 50% the best they can get is 5 journeys home at half price, (the equivalent of 2.5 completely free ones). It also removes the incentive to do even more than 1 lunch journey earlier in the week to get more free trips to/from work later in the week.

I'm assuming with the 50% you're talking about the 2 then half price discount on weekends? Before it went to free, the FUD was 50% correct? I was thinking about having something like that as well, or alternatively making weekend travel cheaper some other way (i.e. give weekend off-peak a higher discount than weekday off-peak)

[somebody]

But they're at least still paying for it. Under the current set up, if they do a lunch trip Monday-Wednesday, then trips to and from work on Thursday and Friday are free (4 free journeys to/from CBD). Under 2 then 50% the best they can get is 5 journeys home at half price, (the equivalent of 2.5 completely free ones). It also removes the incentive to do even more than 1 lunch journey earlier in the week to get more free trips to/from work later in the week.

I'd rather fix it properly.  I guess 3 then free per day is rortable too, you just have to work relatively hard to do so.

I'm assuming with the 50% you're talking about the 2 then half price discount on weekends? Before it went to free, the FUD was 50% correct? I was thinking about having something like that as well, or alternatively making weekend travel cheaper some other way (i.e. give weekend off-peak a higher discount than weekday off-peak)

50% FUD combined with 15% off peak discounts was a 57.5% discount.

FUD was 50% before it went to 100%, correct.

[Golliwog]

I guess the aim is a cross between something that gives you a discernible benefit, and something that doesn't allow rorting. I'm just not sure there's really that many people doing more than 3 journeys in a day, while equally not that many people are doing more that 2 journeys, I think the rort-ability of it is lessened because for every journey they make they're still at least paying something. It'd be interesting to see what some of the people here who do actually take long distance trips think.

I'm also not sure about comparing the old FUD with new proposals as the FUD was still a discount on a higher fare base. But maybe set it up so that if you earn the 2 then half price 4 or 5 times, then it's applied all weekend/for the rest of the week. Though that just adds complexity, so to some extent I think it might just be easier to make a separate weekend off-peak discount of say 60%.

But that said, the 2 then half price would still be available on weekends which could provide a benefit to shoppers if they spend time at a shopping center before moving on to another set of shops by PT.

[ozbob]

Thanks!  Yes, I note the posters on the CM article are boasting about the free and 9 rort again ..

[somebody]

Thanks!  Yes, I note the posters on the CM article are boasting about the free and 9 rort again ..

Which one do you mean?  I couldn't find it.

[ozbob]

@simon --> http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/north/minister-promises-transport-fare-review/story-fn8m0rl4-1226583769837