Overview
What do you have more cash for when you're only spending 50 cents per journey on your commute to and from work, and to get to wherever else you might need via Queensland's Translink public transport? Sunshine State residents are set to find out permanently. The current cost-of-living relief measure that's been discounting fares to a shiny dodecagonal coin since early August 2024 will now continue — on an ongoing basis, not just for the six months that was initially announced in May.
Slashing the price of public transport was always going to prove a hit. In its first month, the 50-cent fare trial saw more than 15-million trips taken across southeast Queensland alone, increasing patronage by 2.4 percent on pre-COVID-19 levels. So, not only has the current Labor Queensland Government committed to keeping the reduced price, but so has the state's opposition party. Accordingly, no matter who wins the Sunshine State's next election on Saturday, October 26, 2024, cheap public transport is here to stay.
Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons
When the initiative came into effect on Monday, August 5, 2024, it was revealed that it'd run until February — but The Sunday Mail reported that the Queensland Government would reassess the move in early 2025 if Labour was re-elected. No one is now waiting until the ballot, however, given how popular the discounted fares have been.
First Queensland Premier Steven Miles announced that the 50-cent prices would become permanent, then Opposition Leader David Crisafulli revealed that the cheap fare would be kept if there's a change of government.
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The price-slashing move is both a cost-of-living relief measure and an effort to reduce traffic congestion, and it impacts a hefty range of travel options. Translink, which falls within Queensland's Department of Transport and Main Roads, runs trains, buses, ferries and trams in southeast Queensland, for starters. So for Brisbanites, whether you ride the rails as part of your daily commute, hit the road or hop on a CityCat, you're now scoring a hefty discount, getting there and home for just $1 a day.
This is a statewide measure. Translink also runs buses in Bowen, Bundaberg, Cairns, the Fraser Coast, Gladstone and Gympie — and in Innisfail, Kilcoy, Mackay, Rockhampton, Yeppoon, the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Toowoomba, Townsville, Warwick and The Whitsundays.
The 50-cent price applies to everyone, including concession cardholders, but is only available on Translink services. As such, privately operated transport services aren't doing the cheap fares.
Philip-Mallis via Flickr
Kgbo via Wikimedia Commons
Andrew Thomas via Flickr
John via Flickr
All fares across Translink's Queensland public transport services currently cost 50 cents. To find out more about Translink's services, head to the company's website.
Top image: John Robert McPherson via Wikimedia Commons.
