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

"The Opal card is now eighteen months old," said Allan Miles, secretary of Action for Public Transport (APTNSW). "It covers 190 railway stations, most ferries and some buses, but the new Dulwich Hill trams will continue with conductors collecting boutique fares with paper tickets."

"Instead of making a small step towards fare standardisation in Sydney," Mr Miles said, "the government is perpetuating the light rail's unique fare system - one of seven different fare structures still existing in Sydney." With the monorail there were eight, he added.

Mr Miles said that the light rail web site claims that a benefit of the new service is to "allow passengers to easily change between light rail, bus and bicycle, as well as trains at Lewisham and Dulwich Hill". "This physical connection is appreciated," Mr Miles said, "but the fares on different modes remain quite detached."

"The expansion of the Opal card to all of Sydney and further afield by next year is welcome," Mr Miles said, "but this provides only integrated tickets. True fare integration will not happen until the government standardises all fares across all modes."

Mr Miles said that Sydney has seven different fare systems covering trains, buses, government franchised ferries, private regulated ferries, private unregulated ferries, NightRide buses and light rail. "Brisbane and Melbourne get by with one overall fare structure", he said.

"The mantra repeated by the Minister that rail passengers, for instance, should not subsidise bus or ferry passengers is, first of all, nonsense," Mr Miles said. "The people on the 470 bus to Lilyfield subsidise those on the 407 bus to Strathfield West. Similar examples are everywhere."

"Secondly," he said, "the mantra is a bluff to cover the failure of the Opal system design to count travel between any two points as a single journey, regardless of changes from bus to tram to train along the way. This would be a true integrated fare," he said.

Mr Miles explained that nearly all fares comprise "flagfall plus mileage" to cover fixed costs plus running costs. This is why a short trip costs proportionally more than a longer trip. "A person travelling from the City to Mortlake by train to Burwood then by bus is paying two flagfalls," Mr Miles said, "while the fare on the direct 439 bus contains only one flagfall."

Mr Miles called on the government to continue the successful expansion of the Opal card, with its attractive discounts, while at the same time working to standardise (not "harmonise" or "simplify") the fare structure.

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