Re: New trams

["Bradley Torr" <truenorth@one.net.au.SPAMTRAP>]

Glenn J-B <grjb@optushome.com.au> wrote in article
<PxRG6.23153$BU4.38123@news1.blktn1.nsw.optushome.com.au>...

> Sydney's ticketing is crap in comparison to a system that has three zones
> and covers both rail and bus in the suburban area. Try using both
government
> and private transport with the one ticket in Sydney. You can't. Thats the
> reason why I gave up travelling by "simple multi modal" transport 5 years
> ago.

The only multi-modal ticket incorporating private buses in Sydney is
BusPlus, a ticket that's a combined effort of CityRail and Busways (by far
the most progressive and innovative private bus company in Sydney). You can
buy it from selected CityRail stations served by Busways (Campbelltown, Mt.
Druitt and Minto from memory, inter alia) - it basically combines a railway
weekly with a bus weekly, giving one seamless weekly ticket for commuters
from the nearest bus stop to their homes to their destination railway
station.

I am not sure how popular it is, but it certainly is a step in the right
direction and has been around for several years.

I'd like a Melbourne or Adelaide-style ticketing system in Sydney too, but
I don't think it's likely to happen. The current state government appears
to be completely disinterested in improving public transport outside of
certain marginal seats, and the private bus industry in NSW seems quite
content with current arrangements which work in their favour and leave
public transport users out in the cold (literally).

Bring on further STA-ndardisation, I say.

Regards
BT