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

NEWS RELEASE: "Pre-Pay" Bus Debacle Needs Quick Fix

posted Saturday 18 September 2010
Bus passengers have called on the state government to introduce an emergency interim fare scheme to ensure that nobody is turned away from a "PrePay" bus.

Sydney Buses' "PrePay" scheme is expanding rapidly. As a result, increasing numbers of intending bus passengers are being denied boarding because they don't have a pre-paid ticket. Catching a bus in Sydney is becoming intolerably complex, according to Action for Public Transport.

"Any particular bus may have overnight been declared 'PrePay', depending on the location of the bus stop, the colour of the bus or the time of day", according to APT Secretary Mr Allan Miles.

"The PrePay area extends to some inner western suburbs from Monday 20 September 2010."

Trying to work out which bus ticket to buy, and where, requires consulting twenty-four pages of fine print and diagrams in the booklet explaining the new PrePay areas," he said.

"The situation is quite intolerable for people who are not regular bus commuters," Mr Miles said. "Too many casual bus users are being refused entry because they don't have a pre-paid ticket".

"Buying a pre-paid ticket can involve finding a retail seller, queuing at the cash register, lengthy negotiation about the type of ticket required, then queuing again for the bus," Mr Miles said. "Then there's the added frustration of retailers having run out of tickets, meaning more time wasting and queuing" he said.

"The debacle needs to be resolved immediately," he said. "Anybody who wants to get on a bus should be able to do so, even if it means paying a premium, no-change-given, fare," Mr Miles said.

"The Pre-Pay system has certainly speeded up the bus services, but it has turned away casual users in droves because of its ever-changing complexity," Mr Miles said. "While we approve of the general strategy behind the Pre-Pay move, State Transit needs to improve its implementation strategy," he said.

"We just need an interim solution until all of Sydney becomes PrePay, or until we get the long awaited smartcard ticket - a couple of years," he said.

Mr Miles said APT had some ideas which could solve the problem for the short term and which would not require expensive technology or occupy drivers' time. He wouldn't reveal what the ideas were. He said he wanted to discuss them with Sydney Buses first.

He laid the blame for the fiasco directly with Sydney Buses and the government, who would have assessed the inconvenience to occasional bus users some years ago, and decided to "live with it."

Media contacts Allan Miles 9516-1906
Kevin Eadie 9819-6052 (not Sunday 19 September)




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