Rail fares in England will be frozen next year for the first time in three decades, with ministers framing the decision as a key measure to ease the cost of living and encourage more people to choose rail over road.
The freeze, announced ahead of the Budget, applies to all regulated fares — including season tickets, peak commuter returns and off-peak fares between major cities. Regulated fares cover around 45% of all ticket types sold in England, and the government estimates the move will save some commuters more than GBP 300 per year on the busiest routes.
The policy covers all regulated fare types, including season tickets for most commuter routes, long-distance off-peak returns and flexible city-region tickets. Unregulated fares — including advance tickets and some walk-up fares — are not covered by the freeze, but ministers expect operators to broadly track regulated price levels.
Incredibly, Transport Vic are counting State Library - Melbourne Central, and Town Hall - Flinders St as separate railway stations. So if you touch on at State Library and walk 50 metres underground to Melbourne Central (and touch-off), you’ll get charged for the privilege ($5.50 for an adult).
As are every hybrid station in the world, except also like the hybrid stations, there’s a pathway that doesn’t need you to touch on and touch off each time. Big dealio.
Reportedly they have now backflipped- the Herald Sun is reporting there will now be an open gate at both ends of the new concourses for pedestrians to be able to transit through without being charged.
It’s not a backflip, it’s likely they just forgot to mention it. There’s a similar setup at Richmond Station when it comes to underpassing the platform.
It is a backflip- they explicity stated yesterday afternoon that there would be a charge for entering at one station’s entrance and exiting via the other station’s exits.
Metro Tunnel is a fantastic thing and a crown jewel accomplishment for this government (and I’m looking forward to taking a ride myself next time I’m down that way)- however little quirks like this don’t exactly make for a user friendly experience, especially when some of the messaging around things like this has been not overly clear.
All of the promotion and advertising has suggested that these stations are conjoined and a single ticketing area, it is not overly unreasonable to expect the ticketing system would be smart enough to treat them as a single station. One would hope that the Myki upgrade will take care of this loophole, while it’s only a small concern in the scheme of things, I do understand why it has raised concerns.
I’ve stopped taking the bus to work and switched to driving.
Even though the bus is cheap (yay for 50-cent fares), it’s just not efficient. Driving takes me about 30 minutes door-to-door, while the bus is over an hour. Fuel costs aren’t an issue since I drive a Tesla, and I also don’t have to deal with Jaxxon the bogan blasting music on his phone, people’s BO, or bus drivers who think they’re on a racetrack. Plus, in my car I actually have control over the air-conditioning—on the bus it’s always set way too high and I end up freezing.
If I need to stay past 7 p.m. (which happens when a big case is coming up), buses drop to hourly. If I miss one, I’m stuck waiting at a pretty sketchy station or paying for an Uber. My biggest issue, though, is reliability. It’s maybe 95% reliable, but when you commute every day that missing 5% adds up fast.
It got to the point where I’d leave early just to catch the bus before the one I actually needed, just to have some wiggle room for cancellations.
In the end, driving has simply become the more practical, reliable, and stress-free option for my routine.
For example, going from Sunshine to Parliament station directly through the City Loop today takes 22 minutes. From February 1, it will take 28 minutes during rush hour with a transfer at State Library/Melbourne Central.
Cranbourne/Pakenham passengers will also lose direct access to Richmond and South Yarra, and those stations will get fewer trains to and from the CBD.
South Yarra – the third-busiest station outside the CBD, after Richmond and Footscray – will experience a more noticeable impact when it drops from three lines to two. Commuters will need to wait for the February timetable to see how that affects frequency.
Getting to and from the MCG will be a right-royal pain for Cranbourne and Pakenham line punters. I suspect it’ll add significant pressure to Caulfield and even Jolimont stations.
I went to Metro Tunnel shop in Melbourne CBD a month ago and asked a staff member if special trains for MCG events would still leave Richmond to Pakenham and Cranbourne, after the Metro Tunnel went into full operations on February 1. The staff member said it was a matter for Metro Trains.
I think you will be correct with that (certainly at first), can see it being chaos though the first time there’s a big footy game with 75k+ heading to the ‘G.
I can see the options being given as either changing for a Frankston train at Caulfield or Malvern, changing at Town Hall for a Jolimont/Richmond service out of Flinders St, or hiking the 1.8ish kilometres to the ‘G direct from Town Hall.
I reckon the best solution would be to run shuttles on event days from out of Flinders going to Richmond- potentially using Platform 13 which is otherwise going to sit redundant going forward. Also would provide an alternative for Craigieburn and Upfield line passengers who already have to change at least once as well.
Absolute circus on opening of Metro Tunnel yesterday. FRV firefighters accessed the tunnel after two false alarms near Anzac Station, which (as designed) caused an emergency line shutdown until said firefighters were detained by Metro Tunnel staff and booted out.