[:)] [:I] [:I] After a long wait, and several attempts and many promises from politicians at local and State level, we finally [:I][:I][:I] have integrated ticketing for public transport across the south east region of Queensland! [;)][:)][:D]
At last, [:I][:I][:I] I can buy a ticket and use it for commuter and inteturban trains, local Brisbane City Council buses, several private bus companies and the Brisbane River ferries! [:)] making connections between various forms of transport is so much easier, or just travelling on different trains on different commuter lines…whew! For a while I thought it was never goping to happen [:(]
I suppose most of you folk “up over” have been enjoying that for quite some time…how have you lot found it? So far not too many teething problems down here…[:0][;)]
What a lot of people do here in the lower mainland is buy a Translink pass for the month. They have unlimited use of Buses, SkyTrain, Sea Bus, and the WestCoast Express which will get you just about anywhere you want to go.
[:)] Hey Macguy! [;)] That’s the same name they have given to our integrated ticketing down here in SEQ: “Translink” must be good word hey!
Yes we have a 1 month ticket, plus a one week ,as well as an all day ticket.
In the new year we will also have a “smart card” with a magnetic strip which is a kind of pre-paid arrangment that records each trip as a deduction off the amount initially paid.
Translink used to be called BC Transit, but was renamed to Translink a few years ago when the provincial government sold the operation to the private sector.
We also have those 1 day passes, I don’t think we have a week pass though…
Unfortunately Translink doesn’t get out to where I live with too much regularity, so I am usually stuck with the car.
Dave;
I don’t know about other cities, but local ticketing in the Chicago area is definitely not integrated. Rail tickets on Metra are universal, the monthly ticket that I use on my line is valid on any other line within the same fare zones. Supplemental fares are necessary if you ride beyond the zone boundaries.
Pace (suburban buses) and CTA (city bus & rapid transit) have flat fares with transfers and it is possible to transfer between Pace and CTA.
However, it is not possible to transfer between Metra and Pace/CTA without paying an additional fare due to the different fare structures even though scheduled connections do exist.
Thanks for that info - I’m a bit surprised a city as huge as Chicago hasn’t integrated.
Different fare structures was definitely one of the sticking points down here too…finally got sorted…but…it meant commuter rail fares rose a bit , and bus fares dropped…us rail commuters weren’t too happy about that side of things[:(] [:0] [:(], but it is a huge step forward for public transport in Brisbane [:)] [:D][;)][8D][:)]
…Believe all the above means the “down under” folks and us…“up over” folks must be pretty close in our thinking…That’s good isn’t it…Good friends and always on the same side…
Integrated ticketing sure would be nice, but there are too many agencies involved to make it happen. I suspect it isn’t as bad as it used to be up here in “up over”. My father used to commute into New York from Connecticut- about 90 miles. He had a monthly ticket on the New Haven Railroad; he carried a monthly bus pass from the local bus line; and he always seemed to have a pocketful of New York subway tokens. It took an average of about four hours to get to our house from his office on Washington Square in New York city.
I doubt it’s much different up here now, except the prices have doubled since my father was a commuter in the late 60’s and 70’s.
Integrated ticketing? In Washington, DC, capital of the richest and at least one of the most technically advanced countries in the world? (Hysterical laughter ensues.) Whatever drugs you’re on, I’d like a pound. Most of the many mass transit providers in the area will at least accept Metro farecards in payment for a monthly ticket or pass, because the Federal gov’t distributes them to employees to encourage use of mass transit. However, not the insufferable dunderheads on the bus system I ride. Fareboxes which accept the Metro Smartpass (or whatever it’s called) are somewhere “in the future” (yeah, which century?).
it’s not too bad here in Philly… one pass can get me on most of the buses and trains, (only extra if i wanna go to the suburbs), except for the regional rails (again to the suburbs) … not sure if i can use their stuff to connect to NJ Transit or Metro down in Deleware… doubt it though
Chicago is still the mess CS Hegewisch described above. They came up with a not-so-smart card that lets people pay their overlapping, redundant fares with one card instead of several, but the fare inequities exist.
Hey Allen - that’s an interesting comment about fare inequities. Us folk that travel by train to work are certain that our increased rail fares after ticket integration are to subsidize the less efficient bus networks…not happy
I’m willing to accept that rail ticket fares subidize “less efficient busses” in Australia, Kozzie, but here in the States economists have proved time and again that subsidized commuter railroads (and also some dedicated heavy-rail rapid transit like San Francisco’s BART) benefit from a upward flow of revenue, by means of regressive transit-district laws that funnel sales and gas taxes away from the working poor and those who live near work and sending them toward more efficient rail transit.
It’s not that transit districts start out to be mean, but the affluent white middle- and upper-middle class types who dominate heavy-rail suburban railroads have options–like paying to park, that workaday types do not. And of course, sometimes regressive taxes can be justified for the overall good, like less congestion on the expressways or less air pollution.
Anyhow, what I meant to say was that it is an inequity–downright unfair–for someone to pay $1.50 for an L fare here in Chicago and still get socked for the whole $3.50 to transfer and ride a train several zones. Nobody ever said that Mr. Bimodal should get the first leg for free, but for heaven’s sake the CTA and Pace (suburban busses) have transfer privileges upon further payment of a fraction of the beginning fare, so why shouldn’t the commuter trains offer something quite similar?