Everyone seems to have an opinion about public transport fares. Most think they should be lower and some even suggest they should be free. But does it matter that much? And what are the consequences of different prices not just in the short term as who decides to get a bus or a train rather than use your car, but also in the long term which includes where we chose to live and work and the resultant impact on the shape of the city that develops.

Professor Corinne Mulley, then Professor of Public Transport at the University of Sydney’s Institute of Transport & Logistics Studies