Just five years ago, in 2010, the paper fare was $3.40, while the Go card trip was $2.30. The 2014 fares make Brisbane the most expensive of any Australian capital city's transport network and trail only the UK and Scandinavia in price, commuter advocate Robert Dow, of Rail Back on Track, said. With public transport patronage in the state's capital languishing at just 11 per cent, Mr Dow has called for a radical restructure of both fares and service frequency to transition Brisbanites from car-dependecy to train, bus and ferry frequenters. "We are the most expensive jurisdiction in Australia and up there in the world rankings," he said. "Patronage is horrific, the problem Brisbane has is we don't have the frequency and the services, yet we are charging world premium fares."

Brisbane transport blogger Briz Commuter has published an analysis of urban public transport fares worldwide that shows Brisbane ranks as the fifth most expensive city for a five kilometre trip to the CBD. It trails the Norwegian capital, Oslo, London and Liverpool in the UK and Stockholm in Sweden. Mr Dow said this year's increase signalled the end of a five year fare increase plan that followed the introduction of the Go Card in 2010. A spokesman for transport minister Scott Emerson said the previous Labor government had originally planned for 15 per cent fare rises in both 2013 and 2014, which the Newman Government cut to 7.5 per cent each year. "As promised we are halving Labor's fare hikes in 2013 and 2014 and providing free travel after nine weekly journeys," he said. "Under our policies a Monday to Friday passenger between the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast and Brisbane will be saving more than $1600 a year when compared to Labor's on-going 15 per cent fare hikes."

Mr Dow described that as "cynical politics" and said in order to boost patronage numbers, the Newman Government now needed to undertake a comprehensive review of the network to increase patronage. "Inner Brisbane is not too bad, but further out, the frequency is poor," he said. "If you miss connections, you're in for a long wait. "But the real issue at the moment is the high fare cost that is dissuading people from using public transport." Mr Emerson's spokesman said 200 extra train services would begin on southeast Queensland's rail network on January 20 but further fare increases were subject to review.

"We'll continue to improve public transport affordability ... and find further savings before making a decision on future fare changes," he said.