CHAIR – With respect, Ms Dow, I’ve given you quite a lot of leniency. We will move on and you will have plenty of time to ask other questions.
Minister, I’m curious to know, you talked about the fact that the number of people using public transport, Metro, has pretty much flatlined, but it has increased when it comes to regional services. Has the government favoured those regional services and private services over Metro, in relation to enabling some of their services to occur?
Mr VINCENT – Certainly not to my knowledge, not at all, across the board. Having spoken to some families up the east coast last Friday regarding why they’re using it, it’s purely because of fuel costs. There’s quite a few people who are using it because it’s much cheaper than what it costs them to run a vehicle down to Sorell or Hobart for their groceries. I haven’t seen any anomalies that you indicate there at all.
CHAIR – I suppose it goes to the heart of the number of Metro services still cut. I don’t want to get into GBE territory, but given we haven’t had those services reinstated with those service cuts, how can you expect that people will be flocking to public transport services, as opposed to Kinetic and Tassielink and so forth?
Mr VINCENT – The present figures through to the end of June indicate an 8.4 per cent increase on a statewide basis since the half-price fares increased, and as I said, most of that is regional. With the reduction in the amount of routes, 34 per cent of those have been put in place. We have chosen not to increase those until the transport plan is understood on where we need to add to some of the new areas. A lot of the ones that weren’t replaced weren’t fully patronised routes – a valid point to some extent – however Metro is very conscious of making sure there are as many people on the buses as possible.
CHAIR – I caught the bus the other night. I waited at the bus stop and was expecting, from the app to get on a Metro bus, but a Kinetic bus came along and I couldn’t use my Greencard. Why is it that on Metro lines, it’s not either free or that you can use your Metro card? I know we’ve talked about integrated ticketing, but can you explain? The other person who got on the bus at the same time was heading to Amelie House, so they had a history of homelessness. Why is it that that person would have to pay to to use the bus service on a Metro line?
Mr VINCENT – Sorry, I’m not familiar with the individual runs on that. We would have to clarify what happened in that situation and come back to you.
CHAIR – It would have been a New Norfolk bus or a bus from the northern suburbs, but it was on a Metro service line.
Mr VINCENT – Thank you. I’ll seek more clarification on that.
CHAIR – You don’t need that on notice?
Ms HEYDON – Through you, minister, we’ll be able to get back to you in this session.
CHAIR – Thank you.
