Matthew Pantelis: The SA Government should bite the bullet and make public transport free

We already subsidise the cost of public transport. So why doesn’t the government bite the bullet and make it free for all, asks Matthew Pantelis.

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If you use public transport, you’ll know exactly what impact the service has to your weekly wage.

For the money you pay, soon to be $5.60 for a single trip ticket, you expect the bus, train or tram to arrive on time, hopefully with an available seat and the trip to be smooth, safe and uneventful.

But if you think there’s money left over from your scanned or purchased ticket to fund new carriages, more services or cleaner seat fabric, you’re kidding yourself.

Like most government provided passenger transport around the world, Adelaide Metro is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer, ours to some 80 per cent.

Your contribution, and those of the people sitting or standing around you right now as you commute, assuming they’ve bothered to pay for their ride, goes to fund the remaining 20 per cent.

I didn’t think much about that until some six years ago when the Liberals in opposition called for free public transport during Mad March and the then Clipsal500, as compensation for road closures.

Then Transport Services Minister Chloe Fox helpfully responded with a cost figure of $8m lost in bus travel over the period if the plan was implemented.

Now, we’d all love the bank balance to be healthier by a lazy $8m but in the scheme of government spending that’s not even petty cash, it’s more like the loose change behind the cushions on the government sofa.

Since then, I’ve wondered why we bother charging commuters at all.

Last week, in the wake of falling patronage figures and their call to the new SA Public Transport Authority to fix it, the state government announced the annual increases to state fees and charges, a two per cent ticket price hike and the scrapping of the two section ticket, a relic from the days of the Municipal Tramways Trust.

Naturally, the announcement prompted the obligatory pleasantries on Twitter between Transport Minister Stephan Knoll and his opposite, Shadow Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis.

Mr Knoll tweeted “providing free travel for concession groups is important (and) shouldn’t change but if the only way to increase use is to give it away, then it shows we need to focus more on the customer.”

No argument there but talk of free travel for some raises the obvious point which I made to him on Twitter; if taxpayers fund the service to 80 per cent, why shouldn’t they fund it to 100 percent? Why not make it free? We want to fix patronage, right?

Do you think public transport in Adelaide should be free? Picture: MATT LOXTON

The Opposition isn’t having any of that, Mr. Koutsantonis joining in with a view of the problem not being about patronage but ideology and budget management.

He says the Liberals “are preparing the public and media for privatisation and cuts, both unjustified on patronage numbers and the fact public transport is an essential service.”

The Transport Minister responded to me saying free public transport for all “would blow a $320m hole in the budget (and) our issues are more about service than cost, our (public transport) is cheap compared with other jurisdictions”.

Let’s break that down: $320m a year comes down to $26m a month or less than $1m per day. Of course it’s a cost but if that’s the 20 per cent, then we’re already paying the other 80 per cent, or if you prefer it in dollar terms, $1.3bn per year.

The extra bit literally is what’s behind the couch, in government spending terms.

Some questions for the government:

Are we serious about growing our population base by attracting people to South Australia? What better selling point than living in the capital city where every bus, tram and train is free?

The State Government wants to revive Adelaide’s public transport system.

Do we really want to bust road congestion?

RAA studies, seemingly since the organisation was formed, have reported longer and longer waits for commuters in their cars on crammed inner arterial roads.

Imagine if just 10, or 20 or even 30 percent of motorists decided to leave the vehicle at home and catch a free bus, tram or train in to the city.

And finally, do we really want to increase patronage or just talk about it, while doing the time-honoured-all-government-thing of just jacking up the price of tickets as an easy budget fix?

The only downside I can see to free transport is there won’t be enough buses, trams or trains to cope with demand. Patronage would go through the roof, Indian train style.

This year may not be the time with a cut in GST revenue to SA but the Marshall government needs to prove it is bold enough to try something positive while it is in the driver’s seat, or sit back as a passenger and enjoy the ride while it lasts.

Matthew Pantelis is an Adelaide journalist and the news director of radio Fiveaa.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article said a single-trip ticket cost $5.20. The cost is $5.50 and will rise to $5.60 in 2019-20.