Countrylink Fares Increased to Upgrade Service?

["David Bennetts" <davibenn@pcug.org.au>]

Countrylink are to increase fares by an average of $4 to raise money to
upgrade the service.
Aren't they putting the cart before the horse, we heard this nonsense as
justifcation for Cityrail increases.  How are the services to be improved?

If you go into a car dealer to buy a car when the model is nearing the end
of its production run, and an improved model is coming out, does the dealer
charge more for the dated product so that they can fund a better model?  Not
bloody likely, they discount and you pay full price for the improved model
when it arrives!  So why should we pay more for a deteriorating service in
the hope that we get a better one at some point in the future!

Countrylink's fare strategy is rather inept,and they could well do looking
at the airlines for maximising fare returns.  I have managed to get  advance
purchase discounted seats on trains which are almost full two weeks before
they ran - why don't they have blackout periods on discounts during busy
times?  Why are they advertising 50% off deals, when the up to 40% off
normal advance deals hardly get any publicity?

Just increasing fares with an airy fairy promise of better things to come
won't help get bums on seats, they'll just lose more to the long distance
road coach companies, which offer cheaper fares and sometimes faster
services (eg Canberra).

Regards
David Bennetts
Canberra