Yes, it’s a normal working weekday so I know CityRail will charge weekday peak hour ticket prices when I board a train before 9am. Like a lot of Sydney I’m only working three days this week so it isn’t worth buying a weekly ticket, I’ll buy a return on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.

However CityRail know it’s a quiet time of year and only run a Saturday timetable (albeit with some extra services in the peak that aren’t normal for the weekend timetable). I see the peak hour pricing as a congestion tax, encouraging people to travel outside the busy times and one could also say that CityRail can charge more because there are more services. Both valid points and a good method of managing crowded trains but if there is no congestion and the peak frequency is not the same as the weekday timetable then why should commuters pay for a service they are not getting?

So the question needs to be asked. If CityRail are operating in weekend mode (slightly enhanced) should we really be paying weekday peak hour ticket prices? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think

I posed this question to Kristina Keneally & Barry O’Farrell this morning via Twitter. Barry O’Farrell seems to think it would be logical to charge weekend prices if a weekend service was being offered. At the time of this post Kristina Keneally has not replied

Most people seemed to agree, except for a few, one of which is a CityRail (RailCorp) employee with an axe to grind, go figure.