Fare prices have been blamed for falling numbers of bus travellers and the subsequent loss of services Fare prices have been blamed for the dwindling number of travellers on off-peak bus services. THE State Government has released new figures on falling off-peak bus usage as it enters the last two weeks of consultation on its bus network review. Released last week, the review proposes to reduce the number of bus routes in southeast Queensland from 446 to 335, but increase high frequency runs from 19 to 26. Transport Minister Scott Emerson said during the past three years, off-peak trips typically dominated by pensioners and students, had slipped from 12.9 per cent of all journeys, to 12.7. He said it was clear ongoing 15 per cent fare hikes were to blame. "Students, pensioners and the elderly have been priced out of public transport," Mr Emerson said. Fares went up 15 to 20 per cent in 2010; those that couldn't afford it stopped travelling; revenue fell short; Labor had to keep putting up fares; and more people couldn't afford to travel. We are determined to break that cycle. He said any money saved from the network review would go towards reducing next year's planned 7.5 per cent fare hike. Funding for bus services increased 22 per cent to $580 million in the last three years but in the same period, patronage grew just 0.5 per cent. However the Rail, Tram and Bus Union has condemned the proposed cutbacks to bus routes as a "criminal act against the people of Brisbane." RTBU bus organiser Dave Matters said a lot of work had been done building up the (Brisbane City) Council network. "We have a very good public transport network where the only issue we've got is the pricing," Mr Matters said. It now looks like they're going to bastardise the system, so nobody wants to use it.  He said the changes indicated more people would be "thrown on to train services" or forced to switch services throughout their journey. "Once you start expecting people to swap from bus to train, to bus to get where they want to go, they say 'this is too hard, I'll just use my car'," Mr Matters said. We don't think that's a wise way to run public transport services. Feedback on the changes is being sought from today until March 24 at translink.com.au