Public Transport – Going to Toowoomba

I’m going to ignore the obvious question of ‘Why the hell would you want to go to Toowoomba?’ Apparently some people like it there. Frankly, I think they’re lying. But it’s worth a visit, even just for the opportunity to be grateful you didn’t grow up there.

What I am going to cover is how to get there, and back.

Car

Just drive there, you goit. It takes around an hour (sometimes two, depending on traffic) to get there.

Train

Wait until a Tuesday or a Thursday, and catch the Westlander from Roma Street, Corinda or Ipswich rail stations. You’ll need to book in advance. The journey takes 4 hours from Brisbane to Toowoomba. Rumour has it that horses can do it faster, fed enough oats.

If this option does actually interest you, check out the Traveltrain website for more information.

Bus

If you don’t have a car (owned or hired), then this is the most sensible method of transport. It will take 1.5-2.5 hours to travel by bus, depending on how many towns it stops in. As far as companies go, you have a few different options (be aware that these will tend to change every 6-12 months, so make sure you have updated information):

Toowoomba Transit Coaches
They don’t run very frequently, but they’re cheap and fairly reliable. Usually uncrowded, so on an average day you’ve a good chance of being able to walk up, pay for a ticket and jump on. They don’t run on some public holidays, so check before blithely making assumptions.

Greyhound
Run far more often, and have gotten up my nose by running most of their competition into the ground then raising ticket prices as soon as they have a monopoly. Fairly standard business tactic, I know – but it still sucks. Ticket prices can vary wildly month to month due to aforementioned tactic. Often expensive, sometimes ridiculously cheap. They usually run a reduced number of services on public holidays.

Toowoomba Airport Flyer
By far the most expensive option of the lot, but also the most convenient IF you’re coming from Brisbane airport. It’s a fairly standard airport shuttle service – door-to-door service etc.

Public Transport – Which Ticket?

If you’re looking for a basic introduction to Brisbane’s ticketing system, see Public Transport – Buying a Ticket. It explains integrated fares and zoning.

Translink currently offer a range of tickets, all of which suit different needs. The question is – which one is right for you?

go card

This card has received a lot of publicity recently, partly because of the huge problems encountered by Translink in getting it working and rolled out. It’s been available to the general public since 21 February – long enough to have generated a lot of conversation. While it’s convenient to some, others have found it an expensive annoyance.

Convenience Factors – No zone restrictions (can be used almost anywhere in the Translink network). Makes carrying cash unnecessary.

Usage Restrictions – Not currently accepted on Airtrain, Laidley Bus or Surfside Bus services.

Price Options – No discounts are applied for off-peak travel. If you’re a regular public transport user, your first 6 trips in a week will be charged at full price. You’ll then receive a 50% discount on all trips for the remainder of the week. ‘Week’, in this case, is designated Monday to Sunday. So if you make those 6 trips on Thursday- Saturday, then you’ll pay full price again on Monday. For a standard 5 days/wk 2 trips/day traveller, this works out the same price as a weekly or ten-trip ticket. For anyone else, it could work out far more expensive.

go card Top-ups – Top-ups via credit card are available via the website or phone. May (read ‘most probably will’) take 48 hours to process. So this is not a quick “Whoops I need more money on my go card” option. Top-ups are also available at rail stations (EFTPOS or cash) and should be applied immediately.

Automatic Fines – If you forget to touch your card when leaving a bus, ferry or station, a fine will be automatically removed from your card. Ditto if the card reader isn’t working. At the moment the fine is $5 for an adult train passenger, less for bus passengers and concession holders. The current plan is to double the fine later in the year. This is non-refundable, although in theory a non-working card reader would get you a refund.

Paper Tickets

Single – This allows you to travel on as many services as you need to in order to take the shortest route from one location to another, within the specified zones.

Daily – A daily ticket is double the price of a single for the same zones, and allows you to travel all day in the zones specified, as many times as you want. If you have a zones 1-7, for example, you could travel from Ipswich to Brisbane City to Redcliffe and back.

Off-peak Daily – Exactly the same as a daily, but only valid on weekends, or on weekdays from 9am to 3:30pm and after 7pm. It’s 75% of the price of the equivalent daily.

Weekly Ticket – A weekly ticket costs the same as 8 single trips in the specified zones. For example, a single ticket for zones 1-3 costs $3.20. A zones 1-3 weekly ticket costs $25.60. It is valid for an unlimited number of trips for 7 days from the issue of the ticket.

Ten-Trip Ticket – A ten-trip ticket costs the same as a weekly ticket. Where it differs from a weekly is that it allows you only ten trips within the zones specified, but does not limit you to a specific time period (ie, doesn’t expire after a week). In theory, it allows you to transfer from one service to another as part of your trip without charging you for another trip. But they seem to be keyed to direction of travel. If the first service you get on is travelling toward the city, and you get off in the city and catch one away from the city, you may find yourself overcharged. Keep an eye out. These tickets are valid for Brisbane City Council buses and ferries only – not for trains or private bus companies.

Price Comparisons

Scenario 1

John travels from Ipswich to the city every weekday for work. He usually goes to the Valley on a Saturday night, and sometimes goes to Southport (on the Gold Coast) on a Sunday. Because he doesn’t have a car, he uses public transport for all of his travel.

go card – John will pay $5 per trip for the first three days of the week – $30. He’ll then pay half-price for the remainder of the week – $10 for the rest of his weekday travel, $5 for his visit to the Valley, and $8.40 for his trip to and from Helensvale station. He’ll need to buy a paper ticket to travel any further on Surfside Bus Lines, because they haven’t integrated the go card readers yet – another $4.80 for a 3-zone off-peak daily ticket.

Paper Tickets – John would buy a weekly ticket for zones 1-7, as he typically makes more than 10 trips per week. This will cost him $40, and cover his weekday travel, his trip to the Valley, and part of his Gold Coast trip. The extra cost for the remaining part of his Gold Coast trip (zones 8-13) will cost him $6.90 for an off-peak daily ticket.

Week’s travel cost using the go card – $58.20
Week’s travel cost using paper tickets – $46.90

Scenario 2

Alison and Frank live in Beenleigh. Alison works 3 days a week in Yeerongpilly, and gets a lift home on average one of those nights. Her husband Frank works Monday-Friday in the city and uses public transport every weekday to get to work and home again. They have a car, and use it for weekend travel and grocery shopping.

go card – Alison pays full fare for each of her 5 trips – $4.10 per trip, $20.50 per week. Frank pays full fare for his first six trips – $5 per trip, $30. He then pays half-price for the rest of the week – 4 trips at $2.50 per trip, $10.

Paper Tickets – Alison buys daily tickets for 2 days of the week – $8.20 per day – and a single ticket the other day – $4.10. Frank buys a weekly ticket – $40.

Week’s travel cost using the go card – $60.50
Week’s travel cost using paper tickets – $60.50

Scenario 3

Sally lives in Toowong. She has two jobs – one in Milton on Monday-Wednesday, one in Sandgate on Friday-Saturday. She uses public transport only to get to and from work.

go card – Sally pays full fare for each of her trips to and from work in Milton – $2.30 per trip, $13.80 per week. She pays half-price for each of her trips to and from Sandgate – $1.80 per trip, $7.20 per week.

Paper Tickets – Sally buys a daily ticket each weekday that she works – $4.60 x 3, plus $7.20. She buys an offpeak daily – $5.40 – for the Saturday trip out to Sandgate and back.

Week’s travel cost using the go card – $21.00
Week’s travel cost using paper tickets – $26.40

Conclusion

Rare though Sally’s situation might be, it is possible to save money using a go card instead of the traditional paper tickets. People in a situation to do so will typically live fairly close to their workplace, work at least 3 days a week, and travel a comparatively long distance at least once a week. Others – perhaps a large number of people – will find that the go card is the same price and more convenient than paper tickets. Frequent public transport users, though, may well find that their ticketing costs would be significantly higher with the GO Card. Do the maths, check your situation out for yourself, and find the solution which works for you.

More Information

Check out these sites for more information on the go card and opinions from users:

Official go card information site
Brisbane Times readers’ opinions
Discussions on Back on Track Forum

Public Transport – Mobility Issues

How does Brisbane’s public transport stack up for people with mobility issues?

Better than it used to. There, that’s good enough, right?

I got a taste of dealing with some of these issues last year, when I had serious heart problems combined with a new baby. It meant that I:

• Needed to take public transport rather than walking
• Couldn’t walk up hills
• Was frequently pushing a pram
• Couldn’t lift much

All of which equalled huge pain in backside when trying to go anywhere. Here’s what I learnt.

Buses

Many, but nowhere near most, Brisbane City Council buses are disabled-access-friendly. This includes either a ramp (old ones only) or rather nifty suspension which allows the side of the bus to lower to the kerb, wheelchair/pram spaces, and special seating for those less mobile.If you require a disabled-access bus, you can (theoretically) order one 24 hours in advance, for a specific route, time and place. And we wonder why we see so few wheelchairs on our buses! What they may not tell you is that one route is almost always serviced by disabled-access buses. The Great Circle line (598 and 599) goes in a huge circle around the city, via all the shopping centres. For those who can actually use it, it’s unreliable time-wise but fairly certain to have full disabled access.

Other bus companies (in outer suburbs) vary. They all provide at least a few disabled-access buses. Procedures and policies vary. For example, Westside Bus Company (Ipswich) doesn’t permit unfolded prams on its buses – despite most of them being wheelchair-friendly. The reason? A baby might go through the windscreen if the driver slams on the brakes. Yeah, right – like they’re so much safer squirming round in Mum’s arms! Not to mention falling out of the bus while Mum’s trying to get the pram folded and onto the bus. The drivers are, of course, forbidden to help with this process. On the bright side, you probably don’t want to catch one of their buses anyway. Half of the drivers are surly, rude and screaming at fellow road-users. And chronically late, if they bother actually driving all of their route.

Trains

All suburban and intercity trains are disabled-access – meaning you should be able to get on, although there may not be a specific area to park. That’s the good news! The bad news is – nowhere near all the stations are. If you already know what stations you want to travel between, have a look at the CityRail station information to see if they’re disabled-friendly. But beware the phrases ‘assisted wheelchair access’ and ‘no wheelchair access between platforms’. At my local train station this means that you must wait in a specific area and that access is only available from one side. If you happen to live on the other side of the station, tough bikkies. Have a go on the stairs or risk ticket inspector wrath by catching a train going the wrong way to a station with lifts, then get off, change platforms and catch a train going the way you actually want to go. See Citytrain – Accessible Services for what little information they provide.

Ferries

Huh. Good luck. Give my love to the fishies.

Public Transport – Buying a Ticket

Sadly, that whole signage issue that I was talking about in the how to get there entry applies to ticketing, too. The attitude I frequently see is – “If you don’t know what you’re doing, get a bloody taxi!” God forbid they should put ticket price lists on bus shelters.

It’s not really that hard, though. Walk through it with me and you’ll be buying tickets like a pro in no time.

Integrated Ticketing

The first thing you need to know is that Brisbane public transport ticketing is integrated. That means you can travel on a bus, train and/or ferry on a single ticket. This includes private bus companies contracted by TransLink to provide services in surrounding councils, such as Ipswich, Caboolture and Redcliffe.

Types of Tickets

If you’re a casual public transport user, then there are only four types of tickets that you’ll be interested in.

Single – this allows you to travel on as many services as you need to in order to take the shortest route from one location to another. So, no trips from Toowong to Milton via the Gold Coast, OK?

Daily - this allows you to travel all day in the zones specified, as many times as you want. If you have a zones 1-7, for example, you could travel from Ipswich to Brisbane City to Redcliffe and back.

Off-Peak Daily – exactly the same as a daily, but only valid on weekends, or on weekdays from 9am to 3:30pm and after 7pm.

Ten Trip – unsurprisingly, this allows you ten trips within the zones specified. In theory, it allows you to transfer from one service to another as part of your trip without charging you for another trip. But they seem to be keyed to direction of travel. If the first service you get on is travelling toward the city, and you get off in the city and catch one away from the city, you may find yourself overcharged. Keep an eye out. These tickets are valid for Brisbane City Council buses and ferries only – not for trains or private bus companies.

There are also weekly and monthly tickets, and the new SmartCard tickets. But we’ll go there another day.

Zones

The ticketing is based on zones. You’ll need to work out which zone you’ll be starting in, and which zones you’ll travel through. Bus drivers and rail workers should be able to provide this information, but beware! Train and bus zones vary slightly.

For example – if you want to catch a bus from Toowong to Milton, you’ll need a ticket for zone 2, because Toowong and Milton are both in bus zone 2. However, if you want to catch a train from Toowong to Milton, you’ll need a ticket for zone 1, because both Toowong and Milton are in train zone 1 (Toowong is also in train zone 2, because it’s the (train) zone boundary).

If you’re shaking your head and looking horribly confused, I’m sorry. It’s TransLink’s fault. Just make sure that you carefully quiz the person you buy a ticket from if you’re planning to travel by more than one type of public transport, OK?

These zone maps might give you an idea of how many zones you’ll be travelling in, and how much it might cost you. Be aware that the ticket prices may be out of date by the time you see this, though. Click on a map to see a larger version.

Translink Zones – Brisbane

Translink Zones – South East Queensland

Public Transport – How the Hell to Get There

When I came to Brisbane, I was astounded at the sheer lack of decent signage – both for drivers and those catching public transport. The road signage seems to have improved, but public transport information is still often dismal at best.

Research

If you’re travelling an unfamiliar route, always find out how to get where you’re going before you leave. Otherwise you run a high risk of wandering around looking confused while people busily ignore you. Translink (the entity at least nominally in charge of the city’s public transport) have a fairly decent journey planner. The planner does, however, have a couple of peccadilloes. Firstly, if you’re travelling out of Brisbane metro to an adjoining council – say, Ipswich or Cleveland – you’ll want to select all available services from the very bottom drop down list or risk being told you can’t go there. Secondly, the default Advanced Options (walk distance and priority in particular) can cause the journey planner to tell you that your journey is impossible and you might as well stay at home. Often if you’re willing to walk an extra few metres, you’ll find that it’s not so impossible after all.

Other Ways to Find Out

If you’re in the middle of Brisbane city and not sure which one of the102 bus stops is yours, you have two options. The first – wander around peering at bus stop signs hoping that the map will look familiar. You can cover kilometres with this option. The second – find the Myer Centre. It’s between the Queen St Mall and Elizabeth St. Right at the bottom of this shopping centre, tucked away behind the eateries, is the main bus information kiosk for the entire city. Why there? Don’t ask. They do, at least, have extremely helpful staff with a heap of information at their fingertips.

Railway stations typically have some information about rail (obviously) and bus services operating in the area. It’s well worth asking railway staff, as they’re usually fairly polite and often take public transport themselves.