Australia’s states are split over free public transport as the war in the Middle East drives fuel costs higher, with Victoria and Tasmania waiving fares while NSW, Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia have ruled out following suit.
You know, when I was in Australia I mostly relied on public transport and I thought that not only was it more reliable than here in Germany (not a huge surprise), but a lot cheaper, too.
I think I paid under $50 to get from Sydney to Wagga via TrainLink, in a first class carriage. You pay well over $200 for similar fares over here.
They need to be able to ramp-up services to cope with any increased demand.
Providing free transport is pointless if there aren’t enough trains.
Providing free transport is pointless if there aren’t enough trains.
Tasmanian . there are no trains, we closed them all decades ago, we’ve dug a deep fucing hole with a big stupidity shovel of diesel reliance that beggars belief,
we’re spending billions on a football stadium and have no trains, shitty education and shitty healthcare… fuck endless conservative voters but it is what it is.
Queensland has had 50c fares for a couple of years now. Queensland “not following suit” doesn’t exactly mean the same thing as states leaving their public transport at full price
Both The Greens and The Liberals had 50c fares as one of their policies in the SA election. It’s easy to make those types of promises when you know you’re not forming government, but I wonder if it points to an appetite in the community for more affordable public transport. I dismissed it prior to these emergency measures coming in elsewhere, but now I wonder if that news will stir up similar demands here. Then again, Labor just won in a landslide so it’s not like they’re under any immediate pressure to make big changes.
Free public transport just drives down quality, because voters generally don’t approve of that much spending on other people’s public transport (private transport though, that’s a different matter).
I’m in Melbourne. It’s like $5 for a 2 hour fare. If you’re going 100km in that 2hr it’s a great deal. But if you’re going 1 or 2km it’s cheaper to drive.
No one pays for the bus or tram in Melbourne anyway, this isn’t going to make much difference
We already made it free for eshays.
