Re: Cityrail fare rises suck

[kingpin1@ozemail.com.au (Derek Woodlands)]

'Twas a dark and stormy night on 2 Aug 1999 11:31:46 +1000 as
craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick) took time out from the neverending quest to
rid the world of grues and wrote:
  
> >For a short trip (like Pennant Hills to Epping - about 4km), the single fare has
> >gone from $1.80 to $2.20.  Yet the return fare to the city (off peak - around
> >30km) is only $3.60.  This sucks.
> 
> And how much in a *real* sense does the equivalent car trip cost you? Much,
> much more when you take road taxes, fuel taxes, wear and tear on the car,
> mainenance and repair costs, licence and rego costs, etc.... Trains are
> still *much* cheaper, but most people never consider the *total* cost of a
> car journey - they only look at the fuel usage and forget to factor in the
> other things.

My point is that Cityrail are punishing short trip passengers by having absurdly
high short journey fares (which rose by 22.2%) when compared to longer trips
(which only rose around 10%).

> To be equal to the *real* cost of an equivalent car journey, my estimate is
> that trains fares would need to triple (at least) to come close...
> 
> >It seems to me that Shityrail want to get rid of the short journey passengers.
> 
> Depends what you define as a short journey, but you're probably right.
> That's what taxi flag-fall charges are so high too - discourages really
> short trips since the cost is astronomical, and is about what you're paying
> for the same trip in hidden costs if you drive your own car...

In the case of a taxi, short journeys are a pain.  But with trains it doesn't
matter since most are all stations, especially in off peak.

> >This *WILL* result in more drink driving.
> 
> Only if you're stupid enough to think you're better off going by car. 8-)
 
I've overheard several groups of drinkers who are going to risk drink driving
for the 1 mile trip to their local rather than pay the increased train fare.

Catchya

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