Fare’s Fair
On Monday, CityRail workers are expected to pursue a work action, refusing to collect fares for the day or impose fines on passengers to neglect to purchase tickets. Despite Miranda Devine’s claim that “an army of train travellers” will join the train system staff in this action, I’ll be buying my weekly ticket. Why, you ask? Because it’s cheaper. I have no guarantee that the bulls won’t come after fare-evaders, first of all, plus, 4 daily tickets costs more than one weekly ticket. The majority of the people I ride with daily aren’t day-trippers; they’re commuters like me, and most of them face the same economic choice. We’re stranded by the system, caught in the middle between the unions and Michael Costa, battling for supremacy. If the problem is really that workers are wearied by reform, what impositions are being imposed by Costa beyond reasonable safety concerns? Is there more to it than that; is it really workers who perceive overtime as an entitlement versus management unwilling to invest in the equipment and infrastructure upgrades necessary to get the system running at a twenty-first century level?