The Tasmanian government's five-week free public transport initiative will come to an end this Sunday — but after usage increased and anti-social behaviour fell, some are arguing it should continue.
To address rising petrol costs and ease cost of living pressures, the state government announced a period of free travel across all public bus services which began on March 28.
Regular fares for Metro tickets range between $3.50 and $7.20, depending on where and how frequently a person is catching a bus.
Kelly Cubit of Claremont said she and her family of six appreciated the free bus services and were disappointed to see it finish.
"I would estimate we've saved about $150 on transport at least," she said.
Although she and her family are regular bus users, Ms Cubit also said the initiative allowed them to get out and explore areas of Hobart they would not be able to access otherwise.
"We came down to Margate for the last lot of bus trips and [enjoyed] the day. We wouldn't have been able to come if we had to pay for it," she said.
Ms Cubit said she would like to see a similar initiative introduced during school holidays so that children were not holed up at home and parents who could not afford petrol or did not own a car would still be able to go out and enjoy school holidays.
"I'll be devo when I've got to pay again!"
15pc increase in people using public transport
Commenters on the ABC Hobart Facebook page had a mix of experiences with the free service.
Anna Belle thought it was a good initiative, but "highlighted how poor our public transport is [as] there were not enough drivers to sustain extra passengers and routes."
Lauren Hart said the free service was great but was disappointed by the lack of services.
"This was a great incentive for people to use public transport but without the support of drivers and extra services, it put people out."
Despite some issues, chief of Metro Tasmania Katie Cooper said she had seen an increase in people using public transport.
"It's been a challenging period which was unfortunate timing … but overall if we look across the state, there's been a 15 per cent increase in patronage and I think that's incredibly pleasing," she said.
"That means we've had more people either try the service for the first time travelling or perhaps they've been a regular user and have been able to use it more."
No plans to extend free service
Ric Bean, Tasmanian branch secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, said while it had been a largely positive exercise for drivers, they now held concerns over how passengers would respond to the reintroduction of fares.
"Some may not react terribly positively, having been used to free travel — jumping on a bus without having to worry about money," he said.
Despite its popularity, Transport Minister Michael Ferguson said there were "no plans" to extend the free service now that petrol prices had gone down.
"[It] does come to an end at the end of this month," he said.
"It's been really positive, even with some of the workplace challenges of making sure we have a full workforce, some of whom were caught up by close contact rules.
"We've seen patronage increase by numbers between 9 and I think at times, 16 per cent, across the state, so we're really pleased with that.
"We've continued our initiative because we also want to encourage people to use the bus, to explore our beautiful state, get to know those services and hopefully continue to use them."
