Minister Constance flogs commuters with secret 10% price hike

Today’s Sydney Morning Herald has revealed that Opal fares have sneakily risen by a whopping 10 per cent since the last ticket overhaul in September 2016. This comes as no surprise as we have a Minister  for Transport who cannot be trusted by workers or the general public.

While the Minister continues to recklessly flog off the entire transport network, his incompetence is destroying commuter experience, all while he charges them even more.  In Newcastle for example, we’re already seeing the hallmarks of privatisation destroying transport, with Newcastle commuter’s facing the closure of 200 bus stops on Monday, along with on time running plummeting from 87% to 52% since the new private operator began. This is a disgrace.

Commuters should be outraged that we have a Minister for Transport who is hiking up prices, while driving down services to an all time low. This is what we’ve been warning all along.

Read the article below:

The average Opal fare that passengers pay for using NSW’s public transport has risen by 10 per cent since an overhaul of ticketing just over a year ago, delivering revenue of about $30 million a week to the state government, internal figures show.

While a regulated fare rise in July was kept to inflation, the figures obtained by the Herald under freedom of information laws show commuters have actually paid more for their travel since the changes to the fare structure in September 2016.

The details about the rise in the cost of travel comes as Sydney commuters experienced a chaotic week on the city’s rail network. Despite the major disruptions, the government has rejected calls for passengers to receive fare refunds.

A recent report by the NSW Auditor-General also shows that the revenue collected over any week from Opal fares has altered considerably since the changes.

While average Opal revenue on Mondays to Thursdays rose by up to 25 per cent in the year to June, revenue surged by 62 per cent on Fridays, 78 per cent on Saturdays and 108 per cent on Sundays, according to Transport for NSW data.

Read the full article on the Sydney Morning Herald.