First survey reveals what Brisbane honestly thinks about 50¢ fares

Brisbane commuters aren’t just thrilled with the cost of public transport after the introduction of 50¢ fares – cheap travel seems to have improved their views on journey time, safety, and cleanliness too.

The only people who are less pleased since flat 50¢ fares were introduced are CityCat users – probably because their services are becoming more packed amid a 22 per cent surge in trips on ferries compared with pre-COVID.

Translink’s latest customer experience survey for August, which covers when 50¢ fares began on the fifth day of that month, shows bus, train, ferry and tram users in south-east Queensland were all more positive about the cost of their trip, with a total score of 4.68 out of 5.

Cheaper public transport seems to have even made people feel happier about how clean their bus stop was.Credit: Courtney Kruk

That compares with 3.92 out of 5 the month earlier, and 4.02 in August 2023.

Overall, public transport users gave better scores to 16 out of 25 of the questions asked on the survey compared with a year ago.

They were more positive about the availability of information needed to plan a trip, ease of using the service overall, cleanliness at the stop or station, convenience of the starting location, feeling safe on board, helpfulness of staff members, journey time and punctuality.

However, the surging popularity of an almost-free Brisbane River cruise seems to have caused CityCat users to lose some of their usual positivity.

CityCat passengers gave worse scores for the availability of seating, cleanliness on board, comfort of the ride, feeling safe on board, punctuality and overall experience compared with a year ago.

Despite all that, CityCat users were still happier when answering all but one of the questions on the survey than train and bus passengers.

Cheap public transport enticed Brisbane passengers to hop back on public transport, with a noticeable spike in trips in August, with 2.4 million more than in July.

But there were still about half a million fewer trips that month compared with August 2018 – a drop in patronage of 3 per cent.

And there were 354,596 fewer trips in August 2024 compared with the same month in 2019.

This was despite south-east Queensland’s estimated population growing by 10 per cent between mid-2018 and 2023. From August 5 to September 8, 50¢ fares saved south-east Queensland public transport customers $36.8 million.

Both Labor and the LNP have promised to make 50¢ flat fares permanent if they win the state election on October 26, at an expected cost of $300 million annually in foregone revenue.

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