Millions of public transport passengers could save thousands of dollars as the Queensland Government ends Labor’s on-going public transport fare hikes, delivering on the election promise to lower the cost of living.
Transport and Main Roads Minister Scott Emerson said Labor’s crippling 15 per cent annual fare hikes which began in 2009 would be a thing of the past, as the hard work to deliver a more efficient, frequent and reliable network paid off.
“The budget reveals any annual change to fares is not above inflation for the next three years,” Mr Emerson said.
“We already halved Labor’s increases, but through hard work and strong economic management we have been able to go even further and return costs to normal, delivering real savings for millions of people.
“This delivers on our election promise to lower the cost of living, particularly for passengers who have been hurt by the mismanagement of former Labor Transport Ministers Annastacia Palaszczuk and Rachel Nolan, who oversaw the hikes.
“Unlike the former Labor government we have a strong plan to improve public transport and revitalise frontline services, creating a brighter future for all passengers.
“Under our policies, a regular weekday two-zone passenger will be paying $1.20 less per journey, saving $750 per year compared to go card prices under Labor.
“A passenger from the Gold or Sunshine Coast will be better off by $4.30 per journey, saving $2,500 per year.
“Unlike Labor who announced its on-going 15 per cent fare hikes shortly after the 2009 budget, we’ve delivered on our commitment and found the savings to do more.”
This commitment is on top of the successful free travel after nine weekly go card journeys.
Mr Emerson said the budget also revealed public transport patronage is ahead of its target, with 176.7 million trips taken in 2013-14, more than 1 million additional trips than the previous year.
“Fixing affordability is the final plank of our plan to get people back on to public transport,” he said.
“We’ve already taken train reliability from a three-low to an all-time high and added more than 1,000 additional weekly train and 2,000 additional weekly bus services.”
