The Launceston City Council is maintaining the service, between Inveresk and the CBD, with a budget of $230,000.

Since 2009 the mainly tourism service has averaged 157 passengers a day, which is not a bad effort, but the bus could easily be full if it became a regular commuter service.

Cynics may recoil at an extended free service, but there are many facets to this proposal. Metro is meant to be a community service obligation and is not charged with making a profit, nor making a return on asset. Metro is a custom-made fit for wider subsidised bus travel.

Extending the Tiger service would ease traffic congestion, take enormous pressure off our road and street infrastructure and is environmentally sound.

More importantly it would encourage greater activity in the CBD, bring more shoppers and give the battlers greater, faster access to their city. It would enable city nightlife to flourish and cut down on the drink-driving rate.

In other words, the investment in an extended service would be repaid tenfold. It just requires some innovative thinking from our state and local rulers.

TURKEY

The dramatic increase in tensions over the downing of a Russian fighter jet in Turkish airspace is an unwelcome distraction from the war on terror and a potentially catastrophic development.

It was inevitable that this would happen, after Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a lone wolf crusade against both Daesh and rebels opposed to the Syrian government. It is like friendly fire gone mad. Too many fighter planes; too many agendas and too much testosterone.

This is a perfect time for the United Nations to shake off the toothless-tiger tag and live up to the meaning of its namesake.