Queenslanders to get half-price rail tickets to airport for six months under $10m deal | Queensland politics

Queenslanders will be granted a six-month reprieve on costly train fares to the airport after the government struck a deal with the privately operated rail line.

The state government announced on Saturday that half-price train tickets to Brisbane airport would be available for six months from 5 August, costing taxpayers $10m.

The initiative will reduce the price for commuters from $21.90 to $10.95 and bring worker’s weekly tickets down from $43 to $21.50.

“We are providing an express service direct to cost-of-living savings for Queensland families and Queensland workers,” the deputy premier, Cameron Dick, said.

The latest cost-of-living relief follows the government’s announcement of 50-cent fares on all public transport over the same period.

Dick said the government will reassess after the six month trial on the uptake of public transport usage as to whether the scheme will be made permanent.

The government also hopes the initiative will decrease road congestion by encouraging more commuters to travel by public transport.

However, the airport line Airtrain is privately owned by Britain’s Universities Superannuation Scheme, so the government was forced to negotiate for the latest relief, with further bargaining on the horizon if the cost benefits are to stay.

“We have to negotiate with the company, that’s the reality,” Dick said.

“We have to balance getting benefits for Queenslanders with managing public money and getting the best value for money … and that will be the issue we will consider as we negotiate further with the relevant company.”

The opposition said the announcement is a short-term fix to a long-term issue ahead of the election.

“The short term pre-election contribution doesn’t deliver the long-term structural reform that Queenslanders need to be able to afford to use [the train],” the opposition leader, David Crisafulli, told reporters.

Crisafulli did not elaborate on what the structural reform would be ,but suggested “getting everyone around the table” to work out a deal on train fares.