BUS FARE EVADE FARCE

EXCLUSIVE: 4000 ‘bludging’ kids taking taxpayers for daily ride

THE State Government has vowed to get tough on “cheap” kids after it was revealed almost 4000 students are refusing to pay their bus fare every school day. The “fare evade” button on Gold Coast Surfside school bus runs was hit 763,944 times in 2017-18, triple the 238,195 hits just two years earlier. It costs taxpayers $500,000 more a year to cover it. Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey, who asked for the data, said: “This behaviour left unchecked is setting our youth on a path to petty theft and worse.”

ALMOST 4000 Gold Coast students are evading bus fares each school day, costing taxpayers half a million dollars more annually than it did two years earlier.

School bus fare evasions are soaring, having tripled in three years, prompting Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey to convene a stakeholder group to combat it.

Mr Bailey is ruling out making school bus runs free saying it’s a “minority” abusing a system designed to ensure no kid is left behind.

The “fare evade” button on Gold Coast Surfside school bus runs was hit 763,944 times in 2017-18, triple the 238,195 hits just two years earlier, shock TransLink figures reveal.

Soaring fare evasion has been matched by a 51 per cent fall in revenue from Gold Coast school bus fares for the same period.

In 2015-16, State Government earned $908,322 in revenue from school bus

services. By 2017-18 this had fallen to just $436,945.

The fare evade button was hit 1.67 million times overall on Surfside buses – on school runs and general public runs – for 2017-18.

The driver presses the button when a student passenger says they do not have the money to pay.

Bus drivers are not allowed to leave students on the side of the road as a result of reforms following the 2003 abduction and murder of Sunshine Coast teen Daniel Morcombe.

Currumbin MP Jann Stuckey, whose question in State Parliament secured the data, said the escalation was “worrying”.

“Student fare evade counts have more than tripled in three years and fare

revenue has more than halved which amounts to half a million dollars in lost revenue,” she said.

“The culture of not paying and cheating on paying fares has escalated in worrying numbers and students who deliberately refuse to pay are setting a bad example to others to do the same and inflaming adult passengers who do pay.

“This behaviour left unchecked is setting our youth on a path to petty theft and worse.”

Mr Bailey admitted it was a growing issue and vowed to tackle it.

“Last financial year, Queensland’s school bus drivers recorded more than 1.53 million fare evasions, compared to about 875,000 the year before,” he said.

“The majority of passengers do the right thing but we clearly have a growing problem with fare evasion.”

TransLink will hire 16 new staff to a 55-strong senior network officer (SNO) team to patrol public transport and dish out fines.

Mr Bailey is hosting a roundtable meeting next month with drivers plus experts from government, education and community to strategise dealing with it.

Mr Bailey said fare evasion spiked during school runs most afternoons: “Most pay but a few are taking advantage of our provision of a service that makes sure people are safe.

“Clearly there is a substantial number of students taking advantage of it and that’s not fair and we will be dealing with it.”

Asked if the problem was so widespread that he should consider free school bus runs, Mr Bailey said it was 75 per cent subsidised already: “I don’t think so.

“I suspect quite a few parents would be surprised to hear their child hasn’t been paying fares.”

Keebra Park State High student Mariah Stuart, 17, said students shouldn’t have to pay for school runs.

“But we should on public buses,” she said. “I don’t always have enough money left on my card and the school bus drivers can be really rude about it.

“Some get mad when you don’t pay. Drivers yell at the first few then everyone pushes on anyway.”

Fellow Keebra Park student Phoenix Hetherington, 14, said most students don’t pay: “There’s no point paying – it should be free.

“Some kids can’t afford it. No one ever really pays.”

Benowa State High School student Quinn Caerpinael, 17, said he did not think anyone should have to pay for public transport, but still does himself.

“Usually (I pay), it depends sometimes it runs out and you’re like ‘oops I don’t have money’,” he said.