Re: [Vic] Age: Train fare pledge dumped

["Daniel Bowen" <dbowen@custard.REMOVE.net.au>]

"Maurie Daly" <mauried@tpg.com.au> wrote in message
3a54f9c1.4291054@can-news.tpg.com.au">news:3a54f9c1.4291054@can-news.tpg.com.au...
> On Thu, 04 Jan 2001 11:32:47 GMT, "Daniel Bowen"
> <dbowen@custard.REMOVE.net.au> wrote:
> >But as we know, rail doesn't need to compete with itself: it needs to
> >compete with the private car, which holds the vast majority of the state
> >travel market. That should be the motivation to drive prices down and
> >improve services.

> Not so.
> Monopolistic providers of services be it rail,airlines or even Telcos
> have no interest whatsoever in reducing prices of their services until
> their is direct competition within the same market.
> We didnt see any reduction of airline fares until the introduction of
> Impulse and Virgin , likewise Telstras prices only fell with the
> introduction of competitor Telcos.
> NXP wont reduce prices unless the Govt forces them to ,or there is
> direct competition for the rail market.

I agree that this is how it works now; it's not how it should work though.

We don't need public transport providers competing against each other. We
need public transport providers co-operating to provide a go anywhere,
anytime, cheaply, quickly and safely, network that works as well as the road
system does with the private car. Then we'll see real gains in patronage,
and profitability.

Melbourne has had public transport competition before: think of the Upfield
corridor. Result? Train line worth billions that gets few passengers because
it's parallel to (the winner in this case) a highly used tram line. That's
wasted resources.

> Trains have been competting with cars for the last 80 years but this
> hasnt brought rail fares down, they just keep on going up.

In suburban areas for radial trips in peak hour trains provide effective
competition. For any other trip, public transport in Melbourne does not
provide reasonable competition to cars. They provide only the kind of
service that people with no choice will use. Very few people with cars of
their own will use public transport for non-radial trips. If that is
competition, it's clear who the outright winner is at the moment.


Daniel
--
Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia
dbowen@custard.REMOVE.net.au
http://www.danielbowen.com/