Why isn't public transport free? That's the sort of thing I want my taxes going towards.

From memory the cost of implementing Go cards and enforcing fares cost more than the income generated anyway. At 50c a pop I'm sure it is now.

Rather than paying private companies to implement ticketing on public transport, then expecting the public to put more money towards a private company's profit margin why not just cut out the middle man and make it free?

About bloody time. I just spent a month in Taiwan. It was about this pricing. Initially I was booking taxis, using cars. Then when I saw the price I just stopped, and went all in on public transport. Fast, easy and cheap.

If it's affordable, people will use it. Great to hear.

Feels like a highly cynical move this close to an election. It might help them sure up some votes from the Greens, and it'll provide them a bludgeon they can use when the LNP wins and inevitably chooses to declare the trial a failure.

From the other angle, 50 c is an interesting figure. I saw Jonathan Sriranganathan point out on Facebook that at this point, it would probably be cheaper (to the Government) to just make it free. There's no way 50 c per trip is enough to cover the cost of fare enforcement alone. Other commenters suggested it could be important that it not be free to force people to tap on, to allow for recording data to decide whether or not the trial was successful. It could also be the case that they'll quietly wind back enforcement during this period.

Still, cynicism and criticism of the extent of it aside, this is fantastic. It's a huge step in the right direction, and they should be praised for being willing to do that. It's a bit frustrating that public transport can take as much as 3 times as long as driving, outside of peak hour, but I'll be making an effort to use it more often during this trial period; partly because it genuinely is much cheaper, but mostly just because I want to contribute to the trial's success.

It's a great step and worth celebrating. Hopefully it will encourage people to try PT and leave the car at home. Given the cost of living crisis I do hope it makes a difference.

That said, I do think charging $1 instead of 50c would be better, and put on additional routes and services. I think that is one of the main barriers to people choosing PT in Brisbane, or more accurately, Brisbane's suburbs. So I think success of this is going to be limited because some areas are just not well serviced and often take twice as long to reach their destination.

Unexpected, but very welcome!

Wow, so much sense in one decision, is this Qld gov or some weird dream... and fuck no transport experts, this is almost as good as free. Considering it used to be one of the most expensive in the world (Airtrain BS not withstanding, that actually is the most expensive k for k) quite refreshing.

I

If Brisbane is anything like Newcastle then the LGA will turn around after this experiment and say “Look! Hardly anyone used the buses except school kids” and scrap it all.
Now this hasn’t happened in Newcastle, but it would be the likely outcome because the routes are too few and the buses not often enough.

Australia is completely dependent on car culture in its layout and in its sub-normal intellect-driven toxic masculinity. VROOM VROOM! MUST MAKE LOUD NOISE WITH MY NON-IRONIC TERRIBLE HAIRCUT AND FOCUS ON DENYING EDUCATION!!!