Re: [Melb] Airport Heavy Rail Connection Needed!

["whitehat" <whitehat@alphalink.com.au>]

"Derick Wuen" <cullend@webone.com.au> wrote in message
3b072c31@iridium.webone.com.au">news:3b072c31@iridium.webone.com.au...
>
> David McLoughlin wrote in message <3B071FA7.A10@iprolink.co.nzzzzz>...
>
> <snipped detail of Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington busses and taxis,
> not because uninteresting but to focus clearly on the following>
>
> >I really HATE the high taxi fares on this side of the ditch. We have had
> >taxi deregulation for years now and our major cities have dozens of
> >competing taxi companies, with so many cabs on the road that most of
> >them wait hours for fares. That means they also charge really high
> >fares.
> >
>
> Economic rationalists would hold that ....
>
> (a) dozens of competing taxi companies; and
>
> (b) so many cabs on the road waiting hours for fares
>
> would mean that fares should be lower, not higher. Higher fares seem
> illogical to me in the situation you have outlined.
>
> Are you sure there isn't a market regulator or a cartel, errr, cooperative
> of taxi owners propping up fares to sustain the dozens of companies
waiting
> hours for fares?
>
> In times of taxi "oversupply" in Sydney it is sometimes possible to do a
> fixed price deal with the driver, albeit with some risk.
>
(SNIP)

In KL (Malaysia), it is possible to buy a ticket (about $Aus15 from memory)
to ride a taxi from the airport to the city area. I don't know if this is
Goverment subsidised, or a move to protect tourists from unscrupulous
operators, but it seems to work well. Maybe there is someone out there in Oz
with the buying power (governments?, airlines?) who could negotiate a
similar deal with taxi companies here. It would at least be interesting to
see how market forces would play out in such a scenario.

whitehat