Re: [Melb] Cheap train fares dumped

[lbrown2@bigpond.com (Brown Family)]

On Tue, 02 Jan 2001 23:27:26 GMT, Vaughan Williams
<ender2000@my-deja.com> wrote:

>What I think was meant by the above comment was that people who take
>advantage of the off-peak ticket in particular tend to be people who
>don't work (if they were working, why would they travel off peak?). So
>abolishing discounted off peak tickets does hit less well off people
>compared with, say increasing the full fares across the board. Also,
>the off peak tickets benefit people in outer suburbs (you needed to be
>in Zn 2 or 3 to use them). People in outer suburbs are less well off
>relative to people closer to the city and yet pay the highest fares.
>They also have to put up with the poorest service. It was in this
>context that I think Paul made the above comment.

When Off-Peak tickets were first introduced it was to encourage
people, mainly married, "home-duties" women, to do their shopping in
the city after the peak-hour rush.  In those days, when O-P tickets
were first introduced in Melbourne, (1st. April 1936) very few
households had one car, let alone two, and even that was most likely
used by the husband. In an absence of shopping malls, most women did
their serious shopping in the city. I remember them in the late 50's
and early 60's getting on a train with a hat, white or cream gloves
(sic!) and a handbag. It was almost a uniform for them. They bought
their family's clothes, their household furniture, paid their bills,
had lunch and came home before the children arrived from school, and
started preparing tea. They did it, maybe, once a week  or once a
month and often met with friends in the city.

Working wives, a second car and shopping malls (Chadstone opened in
1960) pretty much killed off the orignal need for this discounted
fare. But the need still remained those who could travel outside the
peak need for train travel and so it was retained, probably well after
its intended purpose had disappeared.

 I believe, strictly speaking, it was not low income earners living in
the outer suburbes who had no need for O-P's since the poorest people
tend to live closer in, in Housing Commision flats and houses, such as
those in South Melbourne, Prahran, Fitzroy, Collingwood, etc. Young
families lived, and still do, in the outer suburbs, which are a mix of
low, medium and high income families. Most have a second car and do
their shopping in large shopping malls close by. Comparatively few
people do their regular shopping in the ciry these days.

One reason for a poorer public transport service in the outer suburbs
is that most dual parent families own two cars there. People living in
the inner suburbs tend to be single, or DINKS, and often have no car
at all, relying exclusively on public transport. With changes in
inner-city council parking regulations for new dwellings in Melbourne,
car-ownership by people in these areas is set to decline even faster.
than it has been. 

Les Brown