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

NEWS RELEASE: Tcard is a Red Herring on the Road to Fares Reform

posted Monday 27 August 2007

The failure of Tcard is not an excuse to further delay reforms to Sydney's fare system, according to the consumer group, Action for Public Transport (APT).

A spokesman for APT, Allan Miles, said that Sydney's archaic distance-based fares system needs to be replaced before any new technology such a smart card is introduced. "The Tcard is not at fault," he said, "the obstacle is the nineteenth century fare scale."

Mr Miles was commenting on the continued delays to the new smart card, which will enable holders to access any form of public transport in Sydney. "Claims that the Tcard is crucial to Sydney's public transport future are nonsense," he said.

"The separate transport agencies are still charging their own fares for trains, buses and ferries," Mr Miles said. "Until there is a standard zone or timed fare across all transport modes, then the Tcard will just calcify the current out-dated fares."

Mr Miles said that the Tcard is only a tool to charge and collect fares and could be used with any fare system. "The Tcard has failed because the Treasurer is trying to squeeze the last cent out of every trip that each rider makes," Mr Miles said. "With a simplified, unified fare system, such as all other capitals use, the Tcard could have been up and running years ago," he said.

Mr Miles said that CityRail, Sydney Ferries and State Transit continue to set fares inside their owned walled fiefdoms with no regard to the external effect and the convenience of riders. "A zoned fare system would tear all this away," Mr Miles said, "and replace it with a fare that would cover travel on any bus, train or ferry in a specified area within a specified time."

Many commuters can already buy multi-ride tickets, multi-mode tickets, pre-paid tickets, weekly or yearly tickets, etc without the need of a Tcard. These benefits must be extended Sydney-wide, but the fear is that Tcard will wipe most of them out. "Despite repeated requests," Mr Miles said, "the government has never given any guarantee that existing discounts will be maintained."

The government must get the fares policy right first, and then worry about the delivery method.

Contact: Allan Miles 9516-1906

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