TIME IS NOW TO GET FARE DINKUM ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Ticket evasion skyrocketing which costs all network users

WHEN it comes to public transport the Palaszczuk Government rates an F for Fail.

Whether it’s buses or trains, Labor ministers have proven they are either not interested or not up to the job of delivering reliable, value-for-money services.

In essence they are not serious about getting more people to use public transport and that is evident in results of the Gold Coast Bulletin’s Golden Age survey which found it was too expensive to use.

Despite being in government for most of the last 20 years Labor have not supplied affordable, dependable travel options that people are prepared to utilise regularly.

And the Palaszczuk Government have sat on their hands while fare evasion numbers on Surfside buses exploded from 425,000 in 2016 to 1,024,261 in 2017 costing honest passengers in southeast Queensland more than $25 million in 2015-16 alone.

Perhaps Labor’s high train fares are to compensate for ongoing massive losses of revenue from bus fare evasion and to a lesser extent tram fare evasion.

We all know that governments struggle to break even with public transport expenses but the lost revenue from people cheating the system regularly and nothing being done to stop them is hurting us all.

Inadequate numbers of Senior Network Officers to patrol and carry out ticket inspections means offenders continue to get away without paying for their fare.

In addition, confidence was shattered with months of rail-fail incidents where services were cancelled as a result of a lack of train drivers.

The problem will only get worse as delays to widen the M1 allows traffic congestion to reach unacceptable levels, and cost motorists dearly in lost business, productivity and family time.

All we have heard from this government are more excuses when what we need are immediate solutions.