Monday, January 28, 2013

Airport Line buyout?

According to the SMH today, the Tourism and Transport Forum has again called for a more reasonable charge for services to or from the Airport.  They quote a paper from the NSW government in 2011 which put the value of Airport Link Company at $276 million.  Unfortunately, this price would be increased due to the 70% patronage increase at Green Square and Mascot after the surcharge was removed as one of the last acts of the last state government.  That should add around $56 million to the price, for $332 million plus inflation, less a couple of years life left in the asset.

If it can actually be bought at this price, they should absolutely go for it.  Even Infrastructure NSW can see the need for lower fares to the Airport, in their "First things first" report.  Why they aren't doing so requires a detailed explanation.


Wednesday, January 9, 2013

MyZone tickets valid on Moore Park-Central event shuttles

In what is a positive move announced a few months ago, people heading to Moore Park can use their MyZone tickets.  Unfortunately, the overpriced tickets for the shuttles are still to be sold.

Ideally they would just make these shuttles free, which is what would happen in Qld or WA.  In the Qld case they would send the bill for the services to the promoter.  Making the shuttles free for everyone would be an equitable outcome and nearly everyone is paying a fare to reach Central anyway.  It is dubious why people who happen to hold a MyMulti ticket should receive free travel on these services - it is very unlikely these services would cause a tipping point to make it worthwhile to purchase a MyMulti.  Fare integration would make such trips of negligible cost anyway.

Making them free would save hassle with selling the tickets as well as hassle for the intending commuters.

In short, while it is a positive move that an anomaly is being reduced, this change isn't going far enough.