Paperless public transport a smarter way to go

The future of public transport in SEQ is paperless, according to the State Government's five-year fares and products strategy announced today.

The strategy, announced today by Acting Premier Paul Lucas and Minister for Transport Rachel Nolan, would see all paper tickets replaced by the go card by the end of 2010.

“In just over 18 months since the roll out began, we've issued almost 450,000 go cards, had more than $120 million loaded on to them and seen 50 million trips taken using the new system,” Mr Lucas said.

"And now we want to move to the next step.

"Smart cards mean faster boarding times, better on-time performance and more data to tailor the rollout of new services where they’re needed.

“Using a go card cuts individual boarding time from around 11 seconds to just three and that translates to a time saving of up to seven minutes on an average bus service.

"More than 1.25 million weekly trips are now taken using go cards, which is about one-third of all trips taken on the TransLink network and more than half of all trips taken during the morning and afternoon peak periods.

"But we want to make sure everyone has every opportunity to get a go card and experience how easy it is to use."

Mr Lucas said the State Government would next year:

·issue 400,000 free go cards loaded with $10 credit upon registration to encourage take-up;

·immediately offer off-peak go card discounts of 10%, rising to 20% by 2012;

·double the retail network for go card purchases;

·massively expand the number of go card machines at major busway stations and transport interchanges;

·roll-out a Seniors Card that will double as a go card;

·introduce a limited-life go card suitable for occasional users and tourists available everywhere a go card can be purchased.

Mr Lucas said TransLink would implement a new fare structure from January next year, which offered substantial discounts on go card fares compared with paper tickets.

Paper tickets for a two-zone trip, taken by more than one-third of all passengers, will rise from $2.90 to $3.90 in January, while the rise in go card fares over the same journey would only be 38 cents - from $2.32 to $2.70.

“The new go card fare is the same fare paper ticket users were paying in July 2007,” Mr Lucas said.

“This new fare structure is all about encouraging people to make the switch to go card."

Mr Lucas said the fare rise was the first since August 2008, when a CPI rise was added and a 20-35 per cent discount given to go card users.

Mr Lucas said extra funds would be used to help add more than 301,000 additional passenger capacity a week to the SEQ network by July next year.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said the paper ticket phase-out would include a range of product options such as new off-peak discounts.

"Any go card user who travels between 9am and 3.30pm or after 7pm will receive an automatic 10 per cent discount off the single go card fare. This discount will increase by five per cent each year up to a full 20 per cent off-peak discount in 2012,” Ms Nolan said.

"The off-peak discount will also assist in spreading the peak by encouraging people to travel outside the busiest periods.

"We will certainly be communicating with passengers in general over the next 12 months but we will also target special groups such as seniors, tourists and parents to ensure their specific questions or needs have been considered.

Ms Nolan said the fare strategy also aimed to return the State Government's per-trip subsidy from 75 per cent back to 70 per cent within five years. To help reach that goal fares will increase 15% a year from 2011 to 2014 – or around 40 cents to 60 cents a year for a typical two-zone ticket.

"For every dollar that a passenger spends on a fare, taxpayers spend three in subsidy and that ratio needs to decrease rather than increase in the next five years,” Ms Nolan said.

“The January fare increase will continue to see passengers paying cheaper fares than in Sydney and Melbourne.

“This government currently provides $1.2 billion in funding of public transport and that funding won’t go backwards – extra money brought in through the fare box will directly fund new services.

“And we’re continuing our massive expansion of the public transport network – already this year we’ve opened $564 million worth of busways and the rail line extension to Varsity Lakes on the Gold Coast is on track to open by the end of the year.”

Ms Nolan said while there was never a good time to increase fares, taxpayers had an expectation that government would recover more than 25 per cent of the true cost of providing public transport.

“The actual cost of delivering public transport has increased dramatically in the past five years due but we've seen fares only increasing with CPI in that period,” Ms Nolan said.

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