Free Brisbane CBD public transport plan to boost COVID-19 recovery
A month of free public transport is being proposed for CBD workers to help revitalise a part of the city smashed by the COVID-19 crisis as commuters work from home and tourist and student numbers drop.
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FREE public transport would help kickstart Brisbane’s CBD smashed by COVID-19 enforced working from home, and help to boost productivity.
The push for free rides for workers is among a raft of measures to get life back into the CBD, which has become a ghost town since COVID.
Under the scheme backed by the Property Council, public transport would be free for a month for CBD workers, who could then use the spare cash to spend in the city.
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Retailers and hospitality groups are backing a major “Back to Work” publicity campaign spruiking the benefits of going into the CBD, as well as urging commuters to spend the money saved by free travel at their nearest city business.
Public transport use is down a whopping 55 per cent compared to pre-COVID, according to the State Government.
National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lamb said “the impact of less tourists, students and office workers in the CBD is severely impacting retailers”.
“We need to encourage activity back to the CBD to ensure retailers survive and thrive post COVID as they play a big part in our economic recovery,” she said.
“A strong CBD retail sector not only employs thousands of people directly, its critical to the future success of other industries like tourism.”
Restaurant and Catering Industry Association chief executive officer Wes Lambert said thousands of hospitality jobs relied on the CBD.
“For those that have been working from home, they may have forgotten about the owner of the cafe or restaurant that always remembered their daily coffee order. But that owner is still in the city, battling through this crisis, and would love nothing more than to give you your daily caffeine fix again.”
Property Council Queensland executive director Chris Mountford said while many office workers had enjoyed not having to commute, businesses were missing out on the benefits of face-to-face interaction inside their firms while cafes, restaurants and shops were being smashed by the lack of custom.
“We also know that when the time comes to welcome investors, tourists and students back to our capital city, they are going to want to see a vibrant and attractive CBD.
“We have had the ‘Good to go’ campaign to help our critically important tourism sector. We need something similar to support our CBD businesses.”
The Star Entertainment Group boss Matt Bekier said his company was steaming on with its $3.6bn Queens Wharf development but said smaller tourism and hospitality operators needed help to survive.
He said bigger operators needed the whole CBD and tourism “ecosystem” to survive so they had a vibrant community to sell to potential customers.
Despite the massive drop in CBD workers, the State Government has ruled out free public transport.
“The Queensland Government already subsidises around 80 per cent of the cost of every bus, train, tram and ferry ticket sold in Queensland,” a Palaszczuk Government spokesperson said.
“Any revenue raised through ticket sales is invested back in the network.
“We could not make CBD fares free as we would have to do the same across Queensland, which is not financially sustainable.”
They said the government had instead committed more than $6bn since February to support households and businesses, including payroll tax relief and concessional loans.
