8 December 2005

Foskey wants to train government to ticket

| Kerces
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Deb Foskey has put out a release (below) calling on the ACT Government to support rail travel by selling train tickets.

Her call was prompted by the news CountryLink will be shutting its Jolimont Centre office, thus forcing people to buy tickets either over the internet or from the train station.

“If ever there was disincentive for rail travel — particularly for those who don’t drive or use the internet — then this is it,” she said.

Personally if I wanted to catch the train and thought about where to buy tickets, I would first go online and then if I failed to borrow anyone’s credit card I would make my way out to the station because it would never occur to me to buy train tickets in a bus station.

And for all those people who want to go to Sydney and don’t drive or have the internet, well Murrays offers tickets for as little as $20 depending on how far in advance you book. And they have an office in the Jolimont Centre.

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey Media Release

Thurs 8 Dec 2005

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Train rescue needed
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ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey today called on the ACT Government to support rail travel to and from Canberra, and consider selling tickets itself.

“CountryLink will be closing its office in the Jolimont Centre from 31 December 2005, meaning travellers now need to get to the station in Kingston or go online to purchase their tickets. If ever there was disincentive for rail travel – particularly for those who don’t drive or use the internet – then this is it” Dr Foskey said today.

“If we care about minimising energy use and limiting greenhouse gas emissions, rail travel should be supported. If NSW isn’t going to make it easy for its passengers then the ACT Government certainly could, and take bookings at its shopfronts.”

“Rail enthusiasts have long suspected that NSW Government’s CountryLink would like to close down the Canberra – Sydney service. It is important that we act at this end to keep it going” Dr Foskey said.

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Roland Manderson Media Advisor
ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey
Legislative Assembly for the ACT
ph(02)62050551 m 0412241379
==== www.act.greens.org.au =====

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midnitecalla10:16 pm 09 Dec 05

Dont know what you are all whinging about, try getting a train to and from cooma! have been waiting for the NSW gov To come to thier senses and reopen that line. the bus although modern is cramped compared to the train , and only goes to cooma not to adaminaby ect, the connecting cab fare is 100.00 one way ! all most canberrans have to do is hop on the bloody ACTION bus and ride to the station for a lot less or use that old fashioned thing called a telephone and make a tentative counter booking,i know its crook that the jolimont is due to close (re job losses possibly)but its not the end of the world.

Frankly though, the only train tickets I’ll be buying are the ones to commute to work from Belconnen to the parliamentary triangle whenever they can bloody well build the infrastructure here in Canberra. You all know what I’m talking about.

sorry, how much expense should the government be going to for the fraction of people with no ‘net access or telephone who want to travel by train?

interstate transport booking is now a human right too?

yeah – it is sad. I used to catch the jlimant bus to Yass and the tarin to Melbourne often. But now you can only do it at the middle of the night.
And the train to Sydney is about 10 times nicer than the Murray’s bus, which is unbearable.
Bring back the trains!
If they ran a few more to Sydney via QBN it might solve the Canberra Ave congestion too.

Yes it does – thats exactly my point. To say that you can’t buy a ticket if you don’t have a car is ridiculous. Foskey is making a ridiculous point.

It only serves to highlight how poorly the rail system has been managed by Bob Carr and now Morris Iemma. They have abandoned rail on the North Coast, and now in the ACT / Queanbeyan areas. It’s all part of the plan to close it down. Make it hard for people to use it, to buy tickets, schedule services at times that are of little use to anyone, then one day close it down citing the fact that “patronage levels have dropped.” Excuse my cynicism…..

Doesn’t the bus go to the train station kingmaker?

Yes country link have a booking service.

Again, i think our glorious MLA has been sharing JB’s magic herion sleeping bag.

Does CountryLink have a phone booking service? If not they should.

Foskey appears to be applying a weird logic. She is saying that if you don’t drive, you can’t go to the train station to buy a ticket. On the same logic, if you don’t drive, you can’t get to the train station to catch a train. Go figure….

removing teh ticket office is a problem.

not everything can be done over teh internet.

example.

say i wanted to travel from canberra jolimont to yass junction by coach, then board teh train to melbourne from yass junction.

i cant make that booking over the internet – ive tried.

what teh internet booking will do is coach from jolimont centre to COOTAMUNDRA then board the melbourne train at cootamundra.

it the same train, but i get on 90 minutes later.

i emailed them and received no reply.

however if i walk into the ticket office, my booking can be accomodated.

so for once i think foskey has a point.

although, the rail is nsw govt owned so they dont really have a responsibility to service this non-electorate of theirs.

Next she’ll be lobbying for a rail link direct from Yarralumla to her country residence.

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