Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

Allan Miles, a spokesman for Action for Public Transport (APT), said that while prepaid tickets can benefit passengers and State Transit, the conversion of this route raises problems.

Mr Miles said that the route 459 goes between Strathfield and Top Ryde, and the 458 plies much the same route and will remain cash fares.

"If a non-ticket holder cannot board a prepay route 459 bus," Mr Miles said, "he might wait up to 20 minutes for the next route 458 bus that takes cash."

Mr Miles said that bus services are slowed by people buying tickets from the driver. "Buses can go faster if passengers buy their ticket from a newsagent, before they go to the bus stop," he said.

However, Mr Miles said that the timetables for the current and the prepay route 459 services are almost identical, and the scheduled journey times are no faster.

APT does not agree that Sydney Buses' method of refusing boarding to potential passengers who don't already have a ticket is the right way to promote pre-pay bus services.

Mr Miles said that more could be done to encourage people to buy tickets before going to the bus stop. "We would prefer a bigger price differential between the pre-bought ticket and the cash-to-driver fare, which could achieve the same result," he said. "At present, cash fares bear a surcharge of only 25 per cent above TravelTens, and pre-purchased single tickets cost the same as fares paid to the driver."

APT supports the keep-it-simple principle for bus fares. "The most infrequent user should be able to walk to any bus stop and catch a bus," Mr Miles said. "Paying a surcharge for cash-to-the-driver is far preferable to being denied entry to the bus."

Mr Miles said that the route 459 bus operates from Strathfield Station to Top Ryde and then to Macquarie University. During off-peak times there are three buses per hour along Concord Rd and Church St. One is a prepay 459 and the other two are route 458, which accept cash. If a person is denied access to a route 459 bus, he must wait 20 minutes for a route 458.

"There may be any number of reasons why a person does not have a valid prepaid ticket on arrival at the stop," Mr Miles said. "Residents of other areas will not know the rules, schoolchildren will lose their bus pass, and even people who use TravelTens and TravelPasses may forget that their ticket has expired."

"The presence of retail ticket selling outlets does not overcome the basic objection to cutting off a section of the community," Mr Miles said. "Is a mother with two kids and shopping expected to go and find a newsagent and then return to wait for the next bus?"

Mr Miles said that other prepay initiatives have always retained a reasonable alternative for cash paying customers, and so should this one. A twenty minutes wait is not an acceptable option. The former route 380 bus to Bondi Beach still runs in parallel with the prepay-only route 333.

Mr Miles said that with the current complex ticketing system, retail outlets cannot be expected to know which ticket a customer needs for a particular journey. "Who will be to blame if the retail outlet sells the passenger the wrong ticket?" he asked.

"Instead of assisting legitimate cash paying customers," Mr Miles said, "the brochure threatens them with Revenue Protection Officers and on-the-spot fines."

"While cash fares should be discouraged", Mr Miles said, "they must not be banned unless a convenient alternative is provided. In this case none exists.

"Mr Miles said that APT is unaware of any public consultation that took place before the change was introduced. "We hope that State Transit managers will monitor the new services and make immediate changes to eliminate any problems," Mr Miles said.

Contact:	Allan Miles	9516-1906
	Kevin Eadie	9819-6052