Fare dodgers making it tough on honest bus users
It was reported in the paper today (1/1/19) “public transport fares to rise”. This is an issue for those of us that do pay to travel, in particular our bus service here in Bendigo, and assume other regional cities that run similar bus services in Victoria.
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I am a regular user of our bus service in Bendigo and a large number of users of this service simply do not swipe a MYKI card when boarding. I would suggest sometimes that up to 40 per cent of passengers do not pay.
I do not blame the bus drivers as they do a fantastic job, but the blame is on the fare evaders who just walk onto the bus for their free ride.
I believe our bus drivers can not and should not physically try and stop these fare evaders as that then becomes another issue.
In recent times, I wrote to Public Transport Victoria and Public Transport Minister and basically, yes there is a problem, and that was it. No solution.
I wrote to my My Guy, former State Liberal Leader. on fare evasion and yes, again, there is a problem but no solution but he did note in his reply in the financial year 2016-17 the estimated fare evasion loss was $36.5 million.
I give full credit to our local bus drivers as they do a fantastic job but the problem is in our society today. There is an issue with some people here in Bendigo that free bus trips are OK and no one will stop them.
The fare evaders are young up to adults, so age is no barrier.
Ian Bates, Bendigo
Teacher standards ‘on the skids for years’
It is true that the educational standard of new teachers has been on the skids for years.
It was my melancholy experience to watch it happening.
Let me share two favourite examples: my student teacher was to give a lesson on the RSPCA. After writing its letters on the board, he told the children that this stood for Royal Society for the Preservation of Cruelty to Animals. Even when I gently pointed out the irony of his mistake, he was too unknowing of English to see it.
Then there was the teacher who in her second year of employment was teaching her Grade 1 class how to spell. One boy wrote as his caption for a picture, THE MONKEY LIKES TO CLIMB THE TREE. The teacher spotted, she thought, his error and with the slash of a red pen corrected it with her new and improved version, THE MONKEY LIKES TO CLIME THE TREE.
Really, if a person cannot spell Grade 1 words, what on earth is she doing posing as a teacher? Would such ignorance be accepted in a mechanic or a mapmaker? Of course not. But it has been accepted for years in teachers, with the lame excuse that it's more important to be inspirational than knowledgeable. The result has been a shameful loss of real knowledge for an entire generation of Australians.
Sandra Lacey, North Bendigo
Have your say
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