Damn those greedy disabled and aged pensioners for sucking up all our valuable public transport seats!
Call to make pensioners pay full fare
By transport reporter Kylie Simmonds
A new report has recommended scrapping concession fares for pensioners travelling on public transport during peak hour.
The peak lobby group, the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF), says public transport in Australia costs $5 billion per year.
But the forum says only one-third of that is recovered through fares and the rest is subsidised by governments.
TTF chief executive Chris Brown will today launch a new report which makes several revenue-raising and cost-cutting suggestions to deal with Australia’s growing population.
Mr Brown says one of those would be allowing concession holders cheaper fares on public transport only during off-peak hours.
“You can’t sustain a system where concession pensioner rates are clogging up peak-hour transport,” he said.
The report also suggests congestion charging, franchising different modes of transport and raising revenue through better advertising.
Clogging up peak-hour transport! Yep, that’s what TTF’s Chris Brown said.
Obviously, all those socially subsidised pensioners on their way to their 1st and 2nd jobs are bludging up all the facilities. Those poor people… they’re so POOR and… unprofitable.
I expect Mr Brown to do two things; 1) come up with some hard numbers on how many pensioners actually ride public transport in peak hour and 2) stand on train platforms checking that blind folks have bought tickets for those seeing-eye dogs. Oh, and… explain to his own aged parents or relatives why they should get the hell off his gravy train and WALK.
What Mr Brown is suffering from is called ‘downward envy.’ It’s the irrational belief that aged and disabled pensioners somehow have it too good.
NEWSFLASH, Mr B: It’s not easy living with disabilities and the diminished capacity to earn that comes with advanced age. Australia is a wealthy country and we as a society afford certain consideration to those who are not as well-off as those in the earning mainstream.
Utterly shameful, Mr Brown.
-weez
6 Comments so far
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Good on you! You said exactly what I (and I believe many others) want to say! Thank you!
Comment by Truth 09.23.10 @ 9:27 amI wrote:
Oh, and… explain to his own aged parents or relatives why they should get the hell off his gravy train and WALK.
Sure as sunrise, Mr Brown’s mum has given him a good spanking.
…Mr Brown’s mother, Jan Murray, says her son needs to “go and stand in the naughty corner” and think about what he said.
“I think it’s a report he’s reading from. I’m sure he doesn’t believe it,” she said.
“So this is a smack over the wrist publicly for him to go and stand in the naughty corner and think about it.
“You don’t throw Granny off the train just to make way for a German backpacker or something.”
Well said, Ms. Murray. Well said.
Comment by weez 09.23.10 @ 1:41 pmActually we have this system in the ACT. It works ok – there is a mad rush of pensioners on the first bus after 9.
Comment by seepi 09.24.10 @ 10:40 amHow cruel. Why should pensioners be restricted from travelling when they need to, even if in peak hour? We’re already talking about disadvantaged people, what sense does it make to disadvantage them further?
Comment by weez 09.24.10 @ 1:23 pmHaha full marks to Jan Murray for getting stuck into her bad boy on Sydney radio. Probably knowing Jan it will be the last we hear of such nonsense.
Comment by inglourious_basterd 10.05.10 @ 12:31 amChris Brown is an idiot! Pensioners have been paying taxes all their lives and in doing so have supported snivelling hangers-on (eg politicians) for many decades … the least this country can do is provide them with free public transport in their twilight years. Want to save money, Brown? How about a pay cut for government Fat Cats and Bank CEO’s????
Comment by Katie 10.27.10 @ 9:31 pmLeave a comment
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