Bus, train fares up 1.8% with trip from Logan to Brisbane up 11¢

The new year is here bringing with it a federal election and a number of changes including new laws and regulations, fees and charges, taxes and benefits.

A typical Logan commuter will pay, on average, about 11c more after fare increases on Monday. Pic Jamie Hanson

THE new year is here bringing with it a federal election and a number of changes including new laws and regulations, fees and charges, taxes and benefits.

Logan commuters are adjusting to annual public transport price hikes after the state government increased bus and train fares by up to 35¢ a trip this week.

An adult, single-zone paper ticket will increase from $4.70 to $4.80 but the concession rate remains unchanged at $2.40. The rate for an eight-zone ticket will increase from $28.40 to $28.90 for adults and from $14.20 to $14.50 for concession.

Using a GoCard is cheaper.

The maximum eight-zone fare will increase from $15.69-$19.61 to $15.97-$19.96 for adults and $7.84-$9.81 to $7.98-$9.98 for concessions.

The cheaper TransLink Go card, which offers further discounts for off-peak travel, also increased with a single-zone adult fare up from $2.60-$3.25 to $2.65-$3.31, with concession fares up from $1.30-$1.63 to $1.32-$1.66.

The new TransLink bus, train and ferry fares, which came into effect on Monday, increased in line with the Brisbane Consumer Price Index of 1.8 per cent.

That equated to an increase of 6¢ to 11¢ per trip on the majority of journeys.

The cost of a one-zone adult Go Card journey went up 6¢ to $3.31. The same trip was $3.35 in November 2014.

For an adult travelling during peak times on a TransLink bus from Logan Central to Brisbane CBD, which is across three zones, the fare increased 11¢ from $6.05 to $6.16.

For an adult travelling at peak times from Jimboomba to Brisbane, the four-zone Go Card journey increased by 14¢ to $8.11.

For adult commuters travelling between five and eight zones, the fare rise was between 19¢ and 35¢.

Most tertiary students who are entitled to concession fares and travelling one or two zones to university will have an increase of 3¢ or 4¢ per trip.

There were almost 183 million passenger trips in 2017-18, an increase of 3.1 per cent on the previous year, making it the largest patronage figure recorded.

In January last year, fares in the southeast increased by CPI with most commuters paying between 5¢ and 12¢ extra per trip.

Tolls will not change on Transurban’s Logan Motorway, Gateway Motorway, Legacy Way, Go Between Bridge, Airportlink or Clem7.

Other financial changes introduced on January 1, included an axing of the tampon tax so sanitary items will be exempted from the 10 per cent GST.

There will also be power price cuts for Origin Energy concession customers on standing offers and non-discounted plans will get an automatic 10 per cent discount for an average saving of $169.

Qantas Frequent Flyers are no longer earning points booking meals after the airline shut down its Qantas Restaurants scheme launched in 2014.

And, as of last week, National Australia Bank customers will be forced to pay $2 to take money out from more than 3000 ATMs they previously used for free.