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2009 Concession and 'RED' Information: Rural and Regional Areas

Overview of changes in concessions (Contract B)

The new Rural and Regional Bus Service Contracts introduce changes in concession arrangements, as set out in Schedule 3 to Contract B "Approved Beneficiaries for Concessions" of Part 2. These changes come into effect on 1 January 2009 and involve changes to concession cards and entitlements, and introduce a new type of ticket, the Regional Excursion Daily (RED) ticket.

The changes standardise concession arrangements to make them consistent with those available on metropolitan and outer metropolitan bus services, and on government rail and ferry services.

In other words, concession cards will now be standardised across NSW and will have application on both government and private services (with the exception of a small number of private ferry services). This removes the need for operators to issue student cards and introduces some changes to entitlements, as outlined below:

Changes in issuance arrangements

This change removes the earlier obligation on operators to issue secondary and tertiary student half fare concession cards, which will now be replaced by the standard RailCorp student concession cards. (Note: this advice does not apply to SSTS, for which separate advice will be provided by the Scheme administrator).

To obtain the new cards, students will now need to obtain RailCorp application forms from their educational institution or by downloading the forms from the Ministry's website. Completed forms will then need to be submitted to the school or college for processing and issuance. Operators no longer need to be involved in the process.

Educational institutions will be separately advised about the changes in student card issuance arrangements by RailCorp when provided with their annual supply of concession cards. However, it would be appreciated if you, in your capacity as local operator, could also draw to the attention of the institutions you provide services for, that the new arrangements will mean that:

• The former application process for students travelling on your bus service has been discontinued and any old private operator application forms can be destroyed, and
• Students should now be issued with a RailCorp concession card (previously only applicable for government services), where the applicant meets the RailCorp card eligibility criteria. This will mean that the 30 year upper age limit no longer applies, but that there will be a requirement for students to be fulltime, internal students attending classes at an institution registered with RailCorp, and to meet other criteria.

Additional concession groups

Three additional concession groups will gain entitlements under the new arrangements: Apprentices and Trainees, the Vision Impaired and State Travel Card holders. Customers seeking information about these arrangements and/or application forms should be advised to refer to the Ministry's website. Applicants from rural and regional areas will follow the same processes as those in metropolitan and outer metropolitan areas.

Security features on RailCorp cards

In transitioning to the new cards, drivers will need to be aware that various RailCorp cards are issued with a security feature referred to as a "foil", which changes in colour/design from year to year. This includes the senior secondary card and tertiary student card and the Apprentice and Trainee cards.

They also need to be aware that tertiary student identification cards can function as a transport concession card (i.e. as an alternative to the RailCorp printed concession card) but only attract concessions when they have a current RailCorp security foil attached, or display a computer generated graphic of the current year's "security foil".

Transitional arrangements

Concession entitlements for students enrolled in full year courses can be used up until the beginning of the following year's course commencement, and at the latest up until 31 March. As it may take some time for secondary and tertiary institutions to adapt to the new issuance arrangements, operators are requested to show some flexibility towards students who are slow to obtain/be issued with their new cards. Please also note that students who enrol in short courses or single semester courses will only be issued with a RailCorp card for the term of their course, and the card will show the last day of the course as the card expiry date, and must display a RailCorp security foil.

Drivers are requested to check that a card has a valid foil on it, and to report any suspected incidents of fraudulent foils/cards to their Regional Office.

New product: Regional Excursion Daily (RED) ticket

The new Regional Excursion Daily (RED) ticket will provide an additional fare product for older citizens and other pensioners. This $2.50 all day ticket will be sold by the driver when passengers present a valid Pensioner Concession card, a NSW Seniors card or a War Widower/s card. Drivers are reminded that some younger persons hold pensioner concession cards, and as such, are entitled to this fare product.

As the card gives entitlement to travel on more than one service within the network service area during the day on which it is purchased, and allows multiple trips to be taken on buses in the service network in the one day, drivers will need to permit people holding a RED ticket to board without further charge. Ticketing and charging and data collection arrangements for such will be outlined in a separate information bulletin (No. 2).

Drivers should be aware that RED tickets are not transferable from one person to another, and the holder must present their concession card to verify their entitlement and when transferring from one service to another.

The RED entitlement does NOT extend to holders of a CountryLink Pensioner Excursion ticket, or a Metropolitan Pensioner Excursion ticket, who will need to purchase a RED ticket to board the service. In the same way, holders of RED tickets cannot use their ticket on CountryLink or on bus services in the outer metropolitan or metropolitan areas, and are required to purchase the appropriate ticket for the service they are boarding.

December 2008