A P T N S W logo

Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

NEWS RELEASE: Secret Fares Business

posted Tuesday 27 December 2005
As commuters gear up to pay more for multi-ride tickets from 3rd January, they might ponder how their discounts could vanish when Tcard makes its belated appearance later in the year, according to a public transport consumer group.

Mr Allan Miles, a spokesman for Action for Public Transport (APT), said that the government still has not revealed how it will calculate discounts on multi-ride tickets such as the popular TravelPass, ten-trip tickets and rail weeklies.

“For a transit card to be as attractive as a private motor vehicle,” Mr Miles said, “users must have some certainty about the price of the trip. From what we know so far,” Mr Miles added,” “there can be no such certainty.”

“Despite seven years of development,” Mr Miles said, “the system designers have not yet been told how to program in discounts for commuters who pay up to a year in advance.”

“If Tcard does not provide these discounts,” Mr Miles said, “there could be enormous and expensive delays as commuters revert to paying single fares each time.”

Mr Miles said that the Hon. Arthur Chesterfield-Evans asked a series of Questions on Notice in the Legislative Council as recently as 11th October 2005 about these discounts. (Session 531. Leg. Cncl. Q & A Paper 119 can be found on http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au.)

“The response from the government on 15th November was meaningless,” Mr Miles said, “and avoided the question.” (See Leg. Cncl Q & A Paper 128.)

“A further series of Questions Without Notice on 17th November was given a similar brush-off,” Mr Miles said.

“Commuters have been kept in the dark,” Mr Miles said, “and there is strong evidence that a similar lack of light pervades the Ministry of Transport.”

“For instance,” Mr Miles asked, “will users pay $13.60 up front for a Blue TravelTen, or will they pay $1.70 per trip for the first eight trips, and hope they get the last two free?”

“How will discounts on rail weeklies and TravelPasses be calculated?” he asked. “There is no limit to the number of trips that can be made in a week on the current tickets.”

Mr Miles said that the distance travelled is an additional factor in rail weeklies. “Short distance weeklies give discounts of around 18%,” Mr Miles said, “while long distance weeklies give up to 56% discount.” “Users have not been told how these discounts will be calculated, or even if they will remain.”

“And don’t forget to stock up on TravelTens, FerryTens and TravelPasses at the current price,” Mr Miles said. “Tickets bought before 3rd January can still be used long afterwards.”

Contact: Allan Miles 9516-1906



Action for Public Transport home page

Twitter Facebook webcounter