The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has released its draft report on future Opal fares.Maximum Opal fares for public transport within the Opal network are currently being reviewed by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
Opal is the pricing and ticketing system used across many of the public transport services in New South Wales. While Transport for NSW sets the fares that are charged within the Opal network including off-peak discounts, concessional rates and seniors’ rates, IPART sets the maximum amount that Transport for NSW can charge for each service. IPART also makes recommendations to Transport for NSW about whether off-peak discounts, maximum daily and weekly fare caps and concessional and seniors’ rates are equitable and suitable.
What is IPART recommending?
IPART has released a draft report of its recommendations, with a final report due in October. The draft report contains some recommendations that CPSA supports and others that we are less happy with.
Starting with the positives, IPART is recommending that the eligibility for Concession cards (which give eligible passengers a 50% discount on their fares) be expanded to include anyone who holds a Low Income Health Care Card.
Currently, people on low incomes are only eligible for Opal Concession cards if they receive the full rate of a Centrelink payment. This means that if someone receives a JobSeeker Payment while looking for work, then finds a few hours work a week but still receives a partial rate of payment, they will lose their eligibility for Opal Concession fares. This acts as a penalty for finding work and makes it that much harder for people receiving a JobSeeker Payment to make ends meet while they find work.
CPSA supports this change and will watch closely to see if Transport for NSW accepts IPART’s recommendation.
Another positive note from the report is IPART’s recommendation that Transport for NSW review off-peak discounts to encourage people to travel outside of peak times.
Currently, peak fares are charged between 6:30am – 10am and 3pm – 7pm. For intercity trains, the morning peak begins even earlier at 6am. This means that most people who use public transport to get to and from work are unable to travel early or late enough to avoid peak fares, which creates no incentive for them to try to avoid the busiest services on the network.
Shortening the peak periods, even by a small amount, would make it easier for some people to change their transport use and would therefore reduce congestion on the network for everyone. It would also mean that many Concession card holders would have a better chance of avoiding peak periods when travelling to and from job interviews, training or job service provider meetings.
CPSA is glad to see this recommendation, even though it is still up to Transport for NSW to decide whether and how the peak/off-peak periods could be changed.
Recommendations that we don’t support
The Draft Report also included some recommendations that CPSA does not support.
IPART recommended that Transport for NSW review existing fare types, including daily and weekly caps for Gold Opal fares. While IPART avoided making any firm arguments about how these caps should change, they suggested that Gold Opal daily and weekly caps could be tied to a percentage of Concession caps. This would result in daily caps increasing for Gold Opal cards on Monday to Thursday but decreasing slightly on Friday to Sunday. However, because Concession caps increase in line with adult caps, this would mean that Gold Opal caps would also increase over time, outweighing the short-term benefits of cheaper weekend travel.
CPSA supported reducing the daily cap on Friday to Sunday and on reducing the weekly cap, but we opposed the tying of Gold Opal travel caps to Concession travel caps.
Additional recommendations from CPSA
CPSA had the opportunity to make a submission in response to IPART’s draft report. Along with our support or opposition of IPART’s recommendations, we made a couple of recommendations of our own. First, CPSA recommended that the Opal pricing system be expanded to cover all of NSW so that every pensioner and older person can use a Gold Opal card for all of their public transport trips across NSW.
Second, we recommended that Gold Opal card eligibility be extended to people receiving a JobSeeker Payment. JobSeeker Payments remain significantly lower than pension payments, so it does not make sense to force job seekers to pay much more for their public transport costs than Gold Opal card holders. While CPSA ultimately supports large increases to the rate of all income support payments including JobSeeker and pension payments, expanding the eligibility of Gold Opal cards would make a major difference for people until payments are boosted.
Maximum Opal fares for public transport within the Opal network are currently being reviewed by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).
Opal is the pricing and ticketing system used across many of the public transport services in New South Wales. While Transport for NSW sets the fares that are charged within the Opal network including off-peak discounts, concessional rates and seniors’ rates, IPART sets the maximum amount that Transport for NSW can charge for each service. IPART also makes recommendations to Transport for NSW about whether off-peak discounts, maximum daily and weekly fare caps and concessional and seniors’ rates are equitable and suitable.
What is IPART recommending?
IPART has released a draft report of its recommendations, with a final report due in October. The draft report contains some recommendations that CPSA supports and others that we are less happy with.
Starting with the positives, IPART is recommending that the eligibility for Concession cards (which give eligible passengers a 50% discount on their fares) be expanded to include anyone who holds a Low Income Health Care Card.
Currently, people on low incomes are only eligible for Opal Concession cards if they receive the full rate of a Centrelink payment. This means that if someone receives a JobSeeker Payment while looking for work, then finds a few hours work a week but still receives a partial rate of payment, they will lose their eligibility for Opal Concession fares. This acts as a penalty for finding work and makes it that much harder for people receiving a JobSeeker Payment to make ends meet while they find work.
CPSA supports this change and will watch closely to see if Transport for NSW accepts IPART’s recommendation.
Another positive note from the report is IPART’s recommendation that Transport for NSW review off-peak discounts to encourage people to travel outside of peak times.
Currently, peak fares are charged between 6:30am – 10am and 3pm – 7pm. For intercity trains, the morning peak begins even earlier at 6am. This means that most people who use public transport to get to and from work are unable to travel early or late enough to avoid peak fares, which creates no incentive for them to try to avoid the busiest services on the network.
Shortening the peak periods, even by a small amount, would make it easier for some people to change their transport use and would therefore reduce congestion on the network for everyone. It would also mean that many Concession card holders would have a better chance of avoiding peak periods when travelling to and from job interviews, training or job service provider meetings.
CPSA is glad to see this recommendation, even though it is still up to Transport for NSW to decide whether and how the peak/off-peak periods could be changed.
Recommendations that we don’t support
The Draft Report also included some recommendations that CPSA does not support.
IPART recommended that Transport for NSW review existing fare types, including daily and weekly caps for Gold Opal fares. While IPART avoided making any firm arguments about how these caps should change, they suggested that Gold Opal daily and weekly caps could be tied to a percentage of Concession caps. This would result in daily caps increasing for Gold Opal cards on Monday to Thursday but decreasing slightly on Friday to Sunday. However, because Concession caps increase in line with adult caps, this would mean that Gold Opal caps would also increase over time, outweighing the short-term benefits of cheaper weekend travel.
CPSA supported reducing the daily cap on Friday to Sunday and on reducing the weekly cap, but we opposed the tying of Gold Opal travel caps to Concession travel caps.
Additional recommendations from CPSA
CPSA had the opportunity to make a submission in response to IPART’s draft report. Along with our support or opposition of IPART’s recommendations, we made a couple of recommendations of our own. First, CPSA recommended that the Opal pricing system be expanded to cover all of NSW so that every pensioner and older person can use a Gold Opal card for all of their public transport trips across NSW.
Second, we recommended that Gold Opal card eligibility be extended to people receiving a JobSeeker Payment. JobSeeker Payments remain significantly lower than pension payments, so it does not make sense to force job seekers to pay much more for their public transport costs than Gold Opal card holders. While CPSA ultimately supports large increases to the rate of all income support payments including JobSeeker and pension payments, expanding the eligibility of Gold Opal cards would make a major difference for people until payments are boosted.
