The Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Ipswich are just some of the places Norman Anderson plans to travel to after winning a year of free public transport use thanks to TransLink's golden go card giveaway.
The resident of Brisbane's western suburbs said he was thrilled to be the first golden go card recipient, with almost 22,500 entries already entered into the competition.
To support the Property Council of Australia’s Fridays in the City initiative, each week in June TransLink is randomly drawing a golden go card giveaway winner who will be entitled to unlimited free travel on all TransLink South East Queensland (SEQ) public transport including buses, trains (excluding long distance trains), trams, ferries and Airtrain for a year.
Entry to the golden go card giveaway is open to anyone who travels on the TransLink SEQ network with their registered go card on a Friday this month and fills in the short entry form on the TransLink website, meaning there are still more golden go cards up for grabs.
Mr Anderson said he caught 454 and 455 buses from the western suburbs "at least twice a week" and he entered the golden go card giveaway on Friday by travelling into the Brisbane CBD to catch up with an "old friend" at Pig 'n' Whistle in the Queen Street Mall.
"I thought 'this can't be real'," Mr Anderson said of his reaction when he received the phone call to notify him he had won the first golden go card.
"It's amazing, it was totally out of the blue. It's a magnificent bonus."
A regular public transport user to visit public libraries at Toowong and Mount Gravatt, Mr Anderson said he enjoyed reading a book while travelling on public transport.
"When I'm on the bus I like to sit and read a book. I love public transport," he said.
"I've got some friends on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast I would like to catch up with, so the free travel will be very handy."
The first Friday of the golden go card giveaway bolstered public transport use, with trips taken on the SEQ public transport network on Friday 4 June at almost 72 per cent of pre-COVID levels.
The golden go cards are non-transferrable and will cover the entire SEQ TransLink network. Winners will be randomly drawn and announced each Monday in June with free travel for a year between 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022.
