THEY CAN RAISE MY FERRY TICKET PRICE WHEN THEY PRY IT FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS

[defrog]

Because Teaf Def has always stood for justice and righteousness, and also operates on a limited budget, the bridal unit and I joined one of those rare beasts in Disco Bay: a protest.



Yes. You can't tell, but there's about another 900 people behind me.

What are we fighting for? An end to war? The tanking economy? The resignation of Thailand’s prime minister? The right to sell the new Guns'n'Roses album in mainland China?

Nope. Ferry price increases.

Okay, it’s not exactly a major issue. But it is worth raising a fuss. The short version of the story is this:

Disco Bay (where I live) relies primarily on a ferry service to get to HK Island more quickly. DBTPL, the company who runs the service, put out a notice in October saying they needed to practically double the fares and cut back service to cover the cost of rising fuel. They gave us four options to choose from in terms of how they go about it, none of which were reasonable. A daily round trip already costs around HK$48 (a little over $6.00, which comes out to around $185 a month). They want to raise that to around $292 a month.

Even the dogs are pissed.



Okay, they don’t look pissed. But they are. Trust me. We asked around.

Part of the reason people are annoyed is that the ferry company says “We can’t afford fuel” but won’t show their math to prove it. The most they’ve shown is a slide showing the price of oil hitting $147 a barrel, which has been outdated since June.

That said, even if they could make their case, that’s still way too high an increase for some people – including Team Def. Like a lot of people we talked to, we’d seriously consider moving to another place to save our travel costs.

Anyway, it was a festive afternoon.

Socking it to the man,

This is dF

PRODUCTION NOTE: I was going to make a joke about taking over the airport, but we’ve just heard that they’re lobbing grenades at the anti-govt protesters in Thailand. Things are about to get ugly.

Comments

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

The DB service is a monopoly, right? this is bound to happen and it's particularly unfair because I thought everyone is expecting deflation...

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

It is a monopoly, yes, which is why the passenger lobby group is also demanding that HKRI allow competition. And yeah, I forgot to mention the whole thing about how food prices are already higher than before.

[ziyda.livejournal.com]

Good on yer. Let 'em have it, you!
: )

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

I have a dream, etc! :)