Ask RiotACT: Should school bus travel be free?

dungfungus said :

I caught school buses through most of my school life, with my father in the RAAF we moved around a bit and the only place the bus wasn’t free was in Canberra. I lived at Fairbairn in ’88 and remember my parents were quite stressed about having to pay for the bus and constantly buying the ticket books.

It was free to those who genuinely needed free travel, children of pensioners for example.

For the rest if going to your local school the cost would have been bugger all, and if sending kids to schools out of area meaning no school bus or multiple buses then that is a personal choice or as Joe Hockey would say a lifestyle choice. So why should it be free?

Also why were you parents buying books of tickets? Even back then there were 1 and 3 month bus passes. Just waive it at the driver. Would have been a cheaper option, and being in the RAAF I am surprised they didn’t somehow subsidise your travel anyway through the various living allowances.

I have 4 who travel the bus enough to cap out on trips each month so we pay about as much as anyone. The cost is not insignificant but what is worse is keeping track of the cards. We have to have a hot spare on hand. Why can’t they redesign the thing to make it more
robust and able to take a lanyard?

Robz said :

Mordd / Chris Richards said :

i caught school buses in sydney in the 80’s, it was never free even for private schools

I caught ’em in the 1990s in Sydney, and it was free. We had thin plastic cards to stick into the green boxes at the door when we got on.

I attended Dover Heights High in 1998 for 1 year (year 11) and I had free travel, but it was limited to what times you could travel at. As I often had to arrive early or stay late for extra-curricular activities I often had to pay for my own travel as it was outside the sanctioned free time period anyway.

I caught school buses through most of my school life, with my father in the RAAF we moved around a bit and the only place the bus wasn’t free was in Canberra. I lived at Fairbairn in ’88 and remember my parents were quite stressed about having to pay for the bus and constantly buying the ticket books.

Mordd / Chris Richards said :

i caught school buses in sydney in the 80’s, it was never free even for private schools

I caught ’em in the 1990s in Sydney, and it was free. We had thin plastic cards to stick into the green boxes at the door when we got on.

When I started at Phillip College in 1976 we received a College Student Free Travel Authority – a bus pass. There were no school buses, we had to take normal route buses. In August that year the Fraser Government abolished the free pass and we had to get a term pass – $10.00 for three months. Even back then we got the message that there is no such thing as a free ride.

i caught school buses in sydney in the 80’s, it was never free even for private schools

So I’ve since realised that the school bus my nieces need to catch to get to school only runs in the afternoon. Which means they need to be dropped off in the morning.

The local bus route doesn’t go anywhere near the school, or even the nearby shopping centre.

gazket said :

I agree though how would they do analytics?
It would also be a saving in the needing tech to process tickets.

Analytics would be easy. There’s tech that can do the job easily, whether or not you still charge fares. http://www.retailsensing.com/automated-passenger-counting.html is one such example. And even if you do charge fares, APC technology counts fare evaders.

Better still, APC technology can be integrated into a public address system, to direct people to board the bus at the rear door (assuming all-door boarding on buses is introduced), or if we’re talking trains, to a different door, if the APC on the bus tells the PA at the stop that the door area is crowded.

As a daily school bus user, it wouldn’t make a difference to me if school bus travel were free. I would still have to catch two buses (one from where I live and the school bus) but even though the school bus would be free, the public bus would still cost meaning I’d pay the same amount as I do now due to the 90 minute transfer period. The 90 minute transfer period means that I can get in an unlimited amount of buses in 90 minutes but only have to pay for one normal fare. (That’s the best I can explain it.)
Some school students only have to catch one bus to and from school (which is the school bus) so free school buses would benefit them, but not those school students who have to catch a school bus and a public bus.

I checked the bus fares for school students on MyWay:

MyWay School Student

Capped at $4.50 per weekday, $2.02 on weekends or public holidays

Capped at 30 paid trip per calendar month

Single trip on school days $1.13

Single trip on weekends, public holidays, or during school holiday periods $1.49

Default fare charge (failure to tag off) $0.81

Arthur Davies said :

Mordd / Chris Richards said :

NSW and ACT public transport are totally different – yes, it is free for kids in Queanbeyan to catch a bus to school on Qcity buses (formerly Deane’s), but prices are staggered by distance and to go from Queanbeyan to Canberra hovers around the $8 mark. It’s all a matter of averages. It’s also not so bad to charge students $1.50 to go to school using a MyWay card, it’s about what would be spent on petrol anyway.

ACTION did trial free student travel during the 1990s, not sure why it didn’t last.

Would it be $1.50 for a child on MyWay? As a senior I pay less than that (about 78 cents off peak) and I would have though children would be similar.
I voted above that there should be a fee in the ACT, but that is rather simplistic. I think the bus fare should be paid for when the local school is being bypassed for another school across town, as that’s choice, not necessary, but any children living more remotely and needing to get to school, such as children on farms, should get free travel. As a child I was boarded on a farm for a few months and I caught the school bus, but I don’t know if my parents paid for that or not. However, we were bused to the nearest school and there was no picking and choosing, which is often the reason in Canberra why children catch buses. I was fortunate, as I was only a few kms form town and only needed to catch the bus between about 8 and 8.30am. Many children came from 50kms or more away and had about two hours travel to and from school.

Re: the pricing, I believe that MyWay is about $1.50 for a concession rate during peak hours, perhaps a bit cheaper (~$1.20) for a student on weekdays. Last I checked, the concession rate dropped to about 85c during off-peak times.

If children are the same price as seniors, it’s 78 cents off peak and $1.41 peak. I just checked my last bus trips on MyWay. I top it up with BPay. If you top it up with credit card I think the bus fares are higher.

Arthur Davies said :

Mordd / Chris Richards said :

NSW and ACT public transport are totally different – yes, it is free for kids in Queanbeyan to catch a bus to school on Qcity buses (formerly Deane’s), but prices are staggered by distance and to go from Queanbeyan to Canberra hovers around the $8 mark. It’s all a matter of averages. It’s also not so bad to charge students $1.50 to go to school using a MyWay card, it’s about what would be spent on petrol anyway.

ACTION did trial free student travel during the 1990s, not sure why it didn’t last.

Would it be $1.50 for a child on MyWay? As a senior I pay less than that (about 78 cents off peak) and I would have though children would be similar.
I voted above that there should be a fee in the ACT, but that is rather simplistic. I think the bus fare should be paid for when the local school is being bypassed for another school across town, as that’s choice, not necessary, but any children living more remotely and needing to get to school, such as children on farms, should get free travel. As a child I was boarded on a farm for a few months and I caught the school bus, but I don’t know if my parents paid for that or not. However, we were bused to the nearest school and there was no picking and choosing, which is often the reason in Canberra why children catch buses. I was fortunate, as I was only a few kms form town and only needed to catch the bus between about 8 and 8.30am. Many children came from 50kms or more away and had about two hours travel to and from school.

Re: the pricing, I believe that MyWay is about $1.50 for a concession rate during peak hours, perhaps a bit cheaper (~$1.20) for a student on weekdays. Last I checked, the concession rate dropped to about 85c during off-peak times.

Why said :

It’s free for those on a pension and have kids living a certain distance from the school.

No wonder the buses avoid Oaks Estate.

In the 1950s I had to pay a penny from school.

gazket said :

I would support free bus rides for everyone, not just school kids. The bus network costs something like $120m a year. They get about $20m in ticket sales. We’re already subsidising the nearly 85% of the cost. May as well go the whole hog and make it free.

I agree though how would they do analytics?
It would also be a saving in the needing tech to process tickets. But would their be a drop in business for businesses that sell my way top ups?

It won’t make a difference, the kids will still need to get a MyWay card, what happens if they need to catch a bus on the weekend? The concessions can be adjusted to allow fares to be free during the week and charge during the weekends and still collect the analytics necessary, I highly doubt that businesses are betting their existence on having MyWay terminals, remember people don’t have to top up at MyWay Recharge Agents at the moment, they can do it online via credit card and arrange direct debit from a bank account so your assertion here is pretty thin.

Why said :

It’s free for those on a pension and have kids living a certain distance from the school.

Yes this is true and there is also a program for children with disabilities that need specialised transport to school as well.

Look the reality is it’s cheaper to pay for the bus fare than the cost of petrol and time wasted rushing to drop the kids off at school on the way to work. $1.50 a trip (so $3 a day) and this is a discounted rate, is a fair price to pay, MyWay cards can be set up with direct debits so that parents can put say $20 a week onto the card.
If you want to pay a bit more in rates or a levy to cover the cost of free bus rides to schools, because that would be the trade off, there is a way to change the student concession to make the fare free but the kids still have to tap on and tap off. I don’t think the ACT Government is convinced that free bus travel to and from school is a realistic option though..I wonder what Alistair Coe thinks?

I would support free bus rides for everyone, not just school kids. The bus network costs something like $120m a year. They get about $20m in ticket sales. We’re already subsidising the nearly 85% of the cost. May as well go the whole hog and make it free.

I agree though how would they do analytics?
It would also be a saving in the needing tech to process tickets. But would their be a drop in business for businesses that sell my way top ups?

If you lived more than 5 km from your school it was free in 2001 and 2002 (college -Kambah to Lake Tuggeranong). You got school term tickets and it was free travel on all buses weekdays 6am-6pm.
Often though it would be hard because particularly for years 11 and 12 at public schools there are very few specific school services as the schools are located in major centres

Canberrans are SO accepting of this kind of issue – something which the ACT is way behind on – school bus travel is in fact free in most major world cities –
$1.50 for a school bus trip ? $3 a day – $15 a week – it adds up over the year, make that years – if there is six years of high school. if you have a few kids it is a hit to the wallet.

Well… you don’t have kids thinking that they will be a cheap investment.

If you’re driving them, you’re spending lots of money on petrol anyway. I don’t believe that the current student bus costs are prohibitive, all things considered. ACTION also caps the MyWay fares at 30 paid trips per month, so if your kids are catching the bus to and from school each day, that’s approximately one week of each month that they get for free anyway.

Canberrans are SO accepting of this kind of issue – something which the ACT is way behind on – school bus travel is in fact free in most major world cities –
$1.50 for a school bus trip ? $3 a day – $15 a week – it adds up over the year, make that years – if there is six years of high school. if you have a few kids it is a hit to the wallet.

I have relatives in Melbourne – and guess what ? FREE (see below) – 70’000 kids each day travel free !

{The School Bus Program is an extensive school bus network that provides travel at no cost to eligible students attending government and non-government schools and living in rural and regional Victoria.
The school bus network is administered by Public Transport Victoria (PTV) and carries over 70,000 students each school day on approximately 1,500 school bus routes}.

I would support free bus rides for everyone, not just school kids. The bus network costs something like $120m a year. They get about $20m in ticket sales. We’re already subsidising the nearly 85% of the cost. May as well go the whole hog and make it free.

Mordd / Chris Richards said :

NSW and ACT public transport are totally different – yes, it is free for kids in Queanbeyan to catch a bus to school on Qcity buses (formerly Deane’s), but prices are staggered by distance and to go from Queanbeyan to Canberra hovers around the $8 mark. It’s all a matter of averages. It’s also not so bad to charge students $1.50 to go to school using a MyWay card, it’s about what would be spent on petrol anyway.

ACTION did trial free student travel during the 1990s, not sure why it didn’t last.

Would it be $1.50 for a child on MyWay? As a senior I pay less than that (about 78 cents off peak) and I would have though children would be similar.
I voted above that there should be a fee in the ACT, but that is rather simplistic. I think the bus fare should be paid for when the local school is being bypassed for another school across town, as that’s choice, not necessary, but any children living more remotely and needing to get to school, such as children on farms, should get free travel. As a child I was boarded on a farm for a few months and I caught the school bus, but I don’t know if my parents paid for that or not. However, we were bused to the nearest school and there was no picking and choosing, which is often the reason in Canberra why children catch buses. I was fortunate, as I was only a few kms form town and only needed to catch the bus between about 8 and 8.30am. Many children came from 50kms or more away and had about two hours travel to and from school.

Yes it should be free.

Buses can take up to 45 cars ferrying kids off Canberra roads during morning peak hour. Reduced congestion.

Car reductions help the ACT realise its emissions strategy. Reduced emissions.

Free buses ensure equality of opportunity and help address attendance. Reduced disadvantage.

It’s free for those on a pension and have kids living a certain distance from the school.

NSW and ACT public transport are totally different – yes, it is free for kids in Queanbeyan to catch a bus to school on Qcity buses (formerly Deane’s), but prices are staggered by distance and to go from Queanbeyan to Canberra hovers around the $8 mark. It’s all a matter of averages. It’s also not so bad to charge students $1.50 to go to school using a MyWay card, it’s about what would be spent on petrol anyway.

ACTION did trial free student travel during the 1990s, not sure why it didn’t last.