Selling pre-loaded Go Cards on buses, getting rid of expensive paper tickets, dropping prices to $2 for zone one journeys, getting extra Gold Coast trains and charging CBD parking operators a levy to make city parking more expensive.
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These are among the ideas experts floated to make public transport better value, after Fairfax Media revealed yesterday public transport was now more expensive per kilometre in southeast Queensland than in Sydney or Melbourne.
Almost all the public transport experts canvassed agreed persuading the federal government to fund Brisbane's underground rail project should be the medium to long-term priority.
However the experts proposed a range of other strategies to improve Brisbane's public transport scheme in the medium to short-term.
Here are the options they suggested.
Mike Veitch, managing partner for Veitch Lister Consulting, Toowong:
- Introduce CBD parking levies to car park owners. The cost would be passed on to their clients, who in turn would become less likely to drive into the CBD and more likely to catch public transport. In Sydney's CBD each parking space has an annual levy of $2100.
- Question any public transport fare increase above inflation - now 7.5 per cent. "From a public transport planning perspective, as opposed to a financial perspective, that is just not a good outcome."
Robert Dow, Rail Back on Track spokesman:
- Make zone one adult Go Card fares $2 during peak times. Then increase them 40 cents for each zone for zones one to 10. From zones 10 to 23 increase it by 80 cents per zone. Fund this change by removing the free travel after nine paid journeys in a week and go back to the old scheme of offering a 50 per cent discount after nine journeys. "Queensland Transport are losing money hand over first with the free journeys."
- Lift the off-peak discount from 20 per cent to 40 per cent to discourage people from travelling during peak hour.
Michael Roth, RACQ strategic planning spokesman:
- Like most experts, Mr Roth voted for the Cross River Rail Network, Brisbane's underground trains. "That will fix a lot of the bus problems because it when the network is working properly with two rail corridor through the network, they can divert some buses to train stations where they will operate as public transport nodes, so not all the buses have to go through the CBD and create congestion bottlenecks," he said.
- Review all the concessions (health cards, unemployed) offered on trains and buses, given the ticket-price issue. Mr Roth was not in favour of dropping fare prices markedly. "The research does not support making prices any cheaper will do any good, it just means there there will be more problems for governments to find the money to improve the service to attract people out of cars."
Adrian Schrinner, acting lord mayor of Brisbane:
- Introduce a daily travel ticket to encourage visitors to easily use public transport. "The new tourist go card is a start, but we'd like to see an affordable daily pass accessible to all," Cr Shrinner said.
- Introduce Brisbane's second City Glider bus service - from the 'Gabba to Suncorp Stadium, which has already been announced.
Transport Minister Scott Emerson:
- Investigate options to change the time of the XPT train from Sydney to Brisbane, so an extra passenger train can be added to the Gold Coast evening peak hour flight.
- Stick to the plan of offering a 7.5 per cent annual fare increase, half the previous 15 per cent hike at a cost of $200 million.
- Complete the review of bus routes and re-allocate the buses as the study reveals. "We are committed to getting people back onto public transport after four straight years of declining patronage by improving affordability, reliability and frequency," he said.
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