Our Meeting with the new Transport Minister and Setting the Agenda

On March the 6th we met with new Transport Minister Jackie Trad. We thank her for taking time to meet us, a grass-roots protest group, and hear our concerns. We told her public transport in South East Queensland is woefully inadequate and needs major reform. This won’t be easy and requires vision and commitment.

We strongly reiterated our key concerns which included concessions for low income Health Care Card (HCC) holders, abolishing the Tertiary Transport Concession Card (TTCC), fare and zone reform, organisational reform of the three existing bureaucracies (Queensland Rail, Brisbane Transport and Translink), and removal of existing public transport planning powers from Brisbane City Council.

The minister reconfirmed her stated election position, including fare reform, abolishing the TTCC and concessions for HCC holders, but she could not yet provide specific time frames. She took our views on board regarding the parlous state of SEQ PT and the need for reform. Importantly, she agreed to meet us again in six months.

A week later we were pleased to find our opinion piece based on our briefing to the minister had been published in the Courier Mail, the first time our name has ever been mentioned in that paper. We feel the response has been positive and that some more engaging conversations will happen in the coming months.

We understand that this Labor government has it's work cut out, but we feel that much can be done by our new transport minister to engage with the court of public opinion. This is where we will be drumming up some visions for the future based on what the people want and asking Jackie Trad to share more about how our system really works so that the public can make an informed contribution.

How to Vote: Ripoff Style

Well it's state election day 2015. After an ultra short campaign we're ready to give our voting recommendations . At the start of the campaign we set out to compare the published policies of the three parties LNP, ALP, and Greens, but that didn't happen so you wont be getting a point by point comparison, just our honest assessment.

 

Vote 1 Greens. 

The Greens took the opportunity to do some blue sky thinking and came up with a policy and plans that we could really get behind. Who knows if they would stand up to budget scrutiny but the Greens committed to extending concessions to the unemployed and removing the absurd bureaucracy around the TTCC card and that's an important first step. The only thing the Greens plan was missing was a commitment to improving community consultation.

Vote 2 Labor. 

Mid campaign we were promised a public transport policy statement from Labor's transport spokesperson Jackie Trad. The policy never appeared. A week and a half later Jackie indicated in a candidates debate that the Labor party supported the extending of concessions to unemployed (a big policy shift), removing TTCC bureaucracy, and starting a fare reform process. Though Jackie's statements about finally bringing Queensland into line with the rest of the country on unemployed concessions were welcome it was too little too late. By not releasing public transport policy statements at any stage Labor withheld the trigger for discussion and debate in the media. While Labor were withholding their public transport policy they were also campaigning on anti-privatisation and their Cross River Rail infrastructure plans. Given that we're experiencing a protracted affordability crisis which started with the previous Labor government we find their unwillingness to be upfront extremely disappointing.

Vote 3 LNP. 

The LNP have brought nothing new to the table during this election campaign. No new ideas or plans, no sweeteners. A vote for the LNP is a vote for the 5 bilion dollar Bus and Train Tunnel and more of the same brutal approach that has left train stations understaffed and a massive number of Senior Network Officers deployed. If voted in the LNP will continue with their aweful community engagement, reduction of services, poor planning, and continued systemic failure. Public transport users will continue to suffer, especially those in areas outside metropolitan Brisbane.

Note: Our voting recommendations were written with input from many of our team members some of whom have affiliations with political parties. Some of our team have just finished high school, some are university students, and others have experience in community work. Our sense of fairness and honesty unites us.

Let's Make Public Transport an Election Issue

The Translink Ripoff is nearly three years old and at this moment in time we think the people of South East Queensland are ready to make public transport an election issue.

New Facebook pages have appeared and people from all over SEQ have been growing more active in the fight against an unfair system. Where are the Translink officers at? was started by a first year uni student who has amazed us with his organising skills. It was an extremely effective response to introduction, masses of red tape, and delay involved with the new Tertiary Transport Concession Card. The TTCC debacle is yet another of example of failed consultation and aggressive regulation. Students have been made into a political football with Translink targeting inner city campuses with new Senior Network Officers deployed to busy student routes to find "students in suits"..

We've decided the time is right for us to bring on new admins for our Facebook page. We believe diversity is strength and new voices will help highlight the range of issues facing SEQ commuters. There is so much to do to keep public transport in the election spotlight for both state and local elections.

Putting the call out for admins has reminded us of why we started The Translink Ripoff in the first place. The lack of concession fares for low income health care card holders makes Queensland the most unfair state in Australia. We want this embarrassing and unfortunate circumstance to change. That's our bottom line.

We look forward to the next six months. We will do everything we can to make sure the stories from people suffering after services cuts, poor service frequency, lack of connectivity, and massive fares get heard.

Our table of shame updated with more smart card info.

After feedback from Facebook followers we've done some research including interstate phone calls to find out what's going on with smart cards and fares. When we first created this table the Go Card system was the most well established in Australia. Now the Myki card is well established in Melbourne and in Perth the SmartRider card is the way to go. Adelaide's Metro card is a little more advanced than Sydney's Opal card.

You'll see that we've added info about the number of transfers and you'll see that SEQ misses out again. To find information about transfers we had to call the info lines for each Transit Authority.

Translink Facebook page launch a total failure.

On or around the 26th of February 2014 the Translink Facebook page went live. Information about the Facebook page launch was unavailable until the 4th of March when the Department of Transport and Main Roads issued this statement. 

At the time of writing no other announcement or promotion of the Facebook page has been issued. The minister Scott Emerson has made no statement through his website or on Twitter, the Translink website has no media releases and contains no mention or links to the Facebook page, and the Twitter handle @translinkseq has made no mention of the Facebook page.

On March the 6th this article appeared in The Courier Mail (online) titled "TransLink launches Facebook page and probably regrets it already". In it seasoned reporter Robyn Ironside outlines the wave of complaints and disparaging statements that followed the discovery of the page by residents of South East Queensland. These complaints have continued to pour in and a series of accusations of political bias and censorship have been received. We were active on the Translink page during this time and were subsequently banned from the page due to the repetitive nature of our posting. We also garnered more than 100 new followers. While we were one of the prominent posters of disparaging remarks Robyn Ironside and her editors were careful not to mention us or our name.

The vast majority of posts to the Translink Facebook page are from unhappy customers. Many have been very unsatisfied with the response of the page moderators to their complaints. One of the most poignant criticisms is that Translink's approach to community engagement through social media is typical of their style of engagement overall. Translink Facebook page moderators have been accused of being disingenuous gatekeepers with no real concern for attending to needs of customers.

To sum it up. No promotion and the absolute bare minimum of notice given to the public who actually use the services offered. One media story that highlights the extreme levels of public anger and frustration at Translink.