{"id":36,"date":"2009-09-04T16:48:18","date_gmt":"2009-09-04T06:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/?p=36"},"modified":"2009-09-07T12:04:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-07T02:04:00","slug":"the-gocard-by-translink-friend-or-foe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/2009\/09\/the-gocard-by-translink-friend-or-foe\/","title":{"rendered":"The goCard by TRANSLink, friend or foe."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mceTemp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-37\" title=\"goCard by TRANSLink\" src=\"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/card_adult.jpg\" alt=\"goCard by TRANSLink\" width=\"200\" height=\"126\" \/>With the release of the goCard some time ago, travellers in the South East of Queensland Australia can now use a card which is pre-paid and can be topped up for the use of \u00a0travelling on public transport.\u00a0 The idea is that all busses, ferries and train stations have a swipe point that allows you to swipe your card when entering or leaving a station, bus stop etc.\u00a0 Each swipe tells TRANSLink where you got on and off and what type of public transport you used so they can calculate what your fare would be.<\/div>\n<p>So why use a goCard?\u00a0 According to the TRANSLink web site they claim the following.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Quicker<\/li>\n<li>Great Value<\/li>\n<li>Convenient<\/li>\n<li>Easier<\/li>\n<li>Smarter<\/li>\n<li>Reusable<\/li>\n<li>Safer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I won\u2019t go into all of the bullet points as there is one item in particular that I would like to expand on, and that is their claim of <em>Great Value<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>They claim that by using the goCard you will receive 20% to 35% discount off of the usual full fare, and if you use your card more than 10 times in a week (Starting first service on Monday and finishing last service on Sunday) you will get 50% off of the cost of any fairs (after the first 10) for the remainder of that week.<\/p>\n<p>So, let\u2019s take a closer look at this <em>Great Value<\/em>.\u00a0 I\u2019ll use the station near me as an example but if you are in zone 5 like I am then the figures below will be identical.\u00a0 I will also need to assume that your travel is for getting to and from work, so 10 trips per week.<\/p>\n<p>Using the goCard, each trip will cost you $3.44 at 10 trips per week will come to $34.44. Now let\u2019s compare that to a weekly ticket which will cost you $34.40. Hmm, that\u2019s interesting; I don\u2019t see how by using a goCard that it gives you <em>Great Value<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I\u2019m not using the full potential of the goCard.\u00a0 Maybe if I used the goCard more often during the week I can take advantage of the 50% rate that is on offer.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s examine the comparison with going to and from work for a week and then adding in a weekend trip to the markets or a ride on the City Cat.<\/p>\n<p>So using my goCard I would have the ten trips at $34.44.\u00a0 Let say I take a ride from Southbank to Eagle St on the City Cat, with a return journey which would cost me $1.92 each way, but as I have exceeded 10 trips for the week that would make the fare $1.92 and not $3.84.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s not a bad saving.\u00a0 My weekly cost would be $36.36. So how does that compare to a weekly ticket.\u00a0 My weekly ticked would cost me $34.44.\u00a0 As my weekly ticket covers the cost of all transportation for the 7 day period within zone 5 there would be no additional expense using the weekly ticket.\u00a0 I\u2019m now starting to see the value in the goCard (sarcasm if you\u2019re not aware).<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take this a bit further down the time scale.\u00a0 Maybe the <em>Greater Value <\/em>is over a longer time period.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at it over a 12 month period.\u00a0 Surely the goCard will offer better value for this period.<\/p>\n<p>As there are public holidays, annual leave and sick days to take into considerations I\u2019m going to base the amount of trips to be 440.<\/p>\n<p>How did I work out the 440 trip calculation?<\/p>\n<p>52 weeks to a year<br \/>\n4 weeks a year holiday<br \/>\n2 weeks a year public holidays<br \/>\n2 weeks a year sick leave<\/p>\n<p>44 weeks at 10 trips per week comes to\u00a0440 trips.<\/p>\n<p>So 440 trips per year comes to $3.44 times 440 which is $1,513.00 using your goCard.\u00a0 If I was to purchase a yearly ticket which covers 5 zones the cost will be $1,376.00.\u00a0 That makes the goCard $137 more expensive to use.\u00a0 The other advantage of the yearly ticket is if I go to the footy or just use public transportation more often I am getting better value with a yearly ticket rather than using the goCard, as the yearly ticked includes all travel within zone 5.\u00a0 In reality I only take 2 to 3 weeks a year for holidays and I\u2019d be unlucky enough to take 1 week\u2019s sick leave and not two which makes the yearly ticket so much more value than the <em>Great Value <\/em>goCard.<\/p>\n<p>In summary: For those people who only use public transport once or twice a week at the most, the goCard offers great value, but for those who use public transport 5 or more times a week with return journeys then you are much better off without the <em>Great Value <\/em>goCard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the release of the goCard some time ago, travellers in the South East of Queensland Australia can now use a card which is pre-paid and can be topped up for the use of \u00a0travelling on public transport.\u00a0 The idea &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/2009\/09\/the-gocard-by-translink-friend-or-foe\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[12,13],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information","category-rant","tag-gocard","tag-translink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47,"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/47"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klaverstyn.com.au\/david\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}