Premier Steven Miles says pre-election move will save commuters money and boost patronage but transport experts question if funds could be better spent
I do think charging $1 instead of 50c would be better, and put on additional routes and services
Politics doesn’t work that way. If they had reduced the cost to $1 instead of $0.50, it wouldn’t have meant any increase in services, because increasing services would require hiring more staff, training them, figuring out which routes to increase service on, doing consultation, etc. etc. etc. It’s a long and complicated process. All the extra 50 c would have done is put more money in government coffers.
In the long term, eh, yeah, maybe you’re right. Honestly I doubt it, because the difference in revenue from that extra 50 c is tiny anyway and we’d need to find so much extra money from elsewhere that we might as well find it all from elsewhere (I suggest the road widening budget!). But it’s at least a debate that could be had. But for a 6-month snap-announced trial, there’s no debate, that would just be straight-up worse.
Politics doesn’t work that way. If they had reduced the cost to $1 instead of $0.50, it wouldn’t have meant any increase in services, because increasing services would require hiring more staff, training them, figuring out which routes to increase service on, doing consultation, etc. etc. etc. It’s a long and complicated process. All the extra 50 c would have done is put more money in government coffers.
In the long term, eh, yeah, maybe you’re right. Honestly I doubt it, because the difference in revenue from that extra 50 c is tiny anyway and we’d need to find so much extra money from elsewhere that we might as well find it all from elsewhere (I suggest the road widening budget!). But it’s at least a debate that could be had. But for a 6-month snap-announced trial, there’s no debate, that would just be straight-up worse.