public transport, paying for the privledge of paying in cashless cities.

[harvyk]

I went down to MEL over the weekend, and wanted to travel around the city on the trains / trams. Now on arriving at Southern Cross station the first thing we did was to find out about how to get around. The lady behnd the counter said we'd need to buy miki's which for 5 of us who would need them, it would be an outlay of $30 for the privledge of been able to pay for traveling on public transport. This did not actually get us a single ride on anything.


Now this has got me thinking, considering more and more cities public transport options are going cashless, what about the humble traveler who may only need to use a cities public transport a couple of times for their visit? Should they be forced to pay for the privledge of been able to pay?

 

[oz_mark]

Now this has got me thinking, considering more and more cities public transport options are going cashless, what about the humble traveler who may only need to use a cities public transport a couple of times for their visit? Should they be forced to pay for the privledge of been able to pay?

Dunno, but in my experience, Melbourne is rather unique in not having a reasonable cash fare option....

 

[Cruiser Elite]

As a staunchly parochial Melbournite - Myki = 'how embarassment'.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I went down to MEL over the weekend, and wanted to travel around the city on the trains / trams. Now on arriving at Southern Cross station the first thing we did was to find out about how to get around. The lady behnd the counter said we'd need to buy miki's which for 5 of us who would need them, it would be an outlay of $30 for the privledge of been able to pay for traveling on public transport. This did not actually get us a single ride on anything.


Now this has got me thinking, considering more and more cities public transport options are going cashless, what about the humble traveler who may only need to use a cities public transport a couple of times for their visit? Should they be forced to pay for the privledge of been able to pay?

this is a valid issue and one of much discussion in Melbourne.... which - as has already been pointed out - is probably unique in the world in NOT being able to accommodate tourists who wish to make a single journey or two during their stay.

there is a reason why some locals refer to it as 'taking the micky' rather than miki.

the system was hugely expensive, and was a bespoke solution costing billions. we could have had something off the shelf from London or Hong Kong... but the idea was that they wanted a GPS enabled system that could work for the whole state. it's pret much been a disaster. and an expensive one at that.

 

[Daver6]

As a visitor to Melbourne since the introduction, it is a disgrace. Been to many other cities and Melbourne is unique in making it difficult for tourists. Also, at $4 a ride it isn't exactly cheap either.

 

[RooFlyer]

Arrrgh!! Got me going. Decided the other day to do the train when visiting Melbourne for a meeting in Brighton rather than a cab - nice option, relax a bit, convenient.

Hit the myki brick wall. "Huh? I can't just pay for a rail ticket????" WTF?

Took a cab. Cost me more, but I wouldn't give the weapon-heads who run the public transport in Melbourne the satisfaction of getting a fare off me.

 

[deejo77]

didn't they offer you the Visitor Pack? for the extra $1 if you went to any of the extra attractions this would have been better value


The myki Visitor Pack includes:

• a full fare, concession, child or seniors myki card, pre-loaded with enough value (myki money) for one day’s travel in Zone 1, which includes the entire tram network
• discount offers at 15 attractions including Melbourne Aquarium, the National Sports Museum, Eureka Skydeck and Puffing Billy, saving visitors more than $130
• a protective myki wallet designed by renowned Melbourne cartoonist Mark Knight
• a public transport map and information on how to use myki.

[h=3]Visitor pack costs[/h]A full fare myki Visitor Pack costs $14 and includes $8 myki money for travel.
A concession, child or seniors myki Visitor Pack costs $7 and includes $4 myki money for travel.

 

[EvanC]

Dunno, but in my experience, Melbourne is rather unique in not having a reasonable cash fare option....

South-east Queensland has a cash fare option, but it's far from reasonable. By time you've taken even a few trips, it's cost you twice what it would have if you'd got a GoCard.

I got caught the first time I visited the Gold Coast - half way through the trip I figured I'd check out GoCard (just for the convenience factor), and after I looked up the fares, I regretted not doing so sooner! Maybe that's one for the travel mistakes thread... my fault for not doing the research first, of course.

 

[oz_mark]

didn't they offer you the Visitor Pack? for the extra $1 if you went to any of the extra attractions this would have been better value

[...]

A full fare myki Visitor Pack costs $14 and includes $8 myki money for travel.
A concession, child or seniors myki Visitor Pack costs $7 and includes $4 myki money for travel.

Where's the extra dollar? A myki costs $6 and putting $8 of money will get you to a total of $14.

 

[dajop]

Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to organise a mechanism for deposit and partial refund on the cards. Say charge $10 for a card and get $9 refund ($1 for adminstration of scheme).

Oh hang on, this would be expensive, given that it will no doubt cost the government $3.3m to pay a consultant for a conceptual design of how it could work.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to organise a mechanism for deposit and partial refund on the cards. Say charge $10 for a card and get $9 refund ($1 for adminstration of scheme).

Oh hang on, this would be expensive, given that it will no doubt cost the government $3.3m to pay a consultant for a conceptual design of how it could work.

there is little logic or common sense when it comes to miki.

many of us are now running into the anomaly whereby all cards are coming up to their pre-ordained four year expiry date. why have a four year expiry date for a solid plastic card? who knows. but you'd think it would be fairly straight forward to get a new one right?

not in tour life! you have to send your old card into head office and get a new one issued. but what happens if you still need your old card to get to and from work? bad luck... you need to buy a NEW one, and then apply for a refund of your old card you just sent in.

confusing? you betcha... and requires the filling out of a double sided form. that's even if you know your rights to start with... many miki agents tell you there is no such refund process for expired cards.

you'd also think with this new electronic system that compensation for poor performance could easily be credited to everyone's miki right? wrong again.... if metro fails to meet their performance targets and you become eligible for one free day of travel... you need to fill in more forms and send those off. nothing automatic about miki when they don't want it to be!

i think they said we could have bought hong kong's system for a few hundred million, saving the odd billion dollars or so.

 

[oz_mark]

i think they said we could have bought hong kong's system for a few hundred million, saving the odd billion dollars or so.

Most cities in Australia went with some form of overseas system (even Sydney that scrapped its go it alone system, and is now getting Opal up and running), and none of them seem to have had the issues that Melbourne has...

 

[ozmille]

In Melbourne we just walk and use the free circle tram, got a good work out on the weekend

 

[codash1099]

As a visitor to Melbourne since the introduction, it is a disgrace. Been to many other cities and Melbourne is unique in making it difficult for tourists. Also, at $4 a ride it isn't exactly cheap either.

I wouldn't be so sure it's unique. IIRC, Seattle has a similar arrangement (but I'm ready to be corrected on that). In many other cities, using a prepaid card of some sort is by far the easiest way of getting around on public transport, despite the availability of single journey fares.

 

[deejo77]

Where's the extra dollar? A myki costs $6 and putting $8 of money will get you to a total of $14.

Bloody maths.....you are correct I just can't do 30/5 = 6

 

[Shelf]

The visitor Myki setup is a load of hogwash!

 

[RooFlyer]

didn't they offer you the Visitor Pack? for the extra $1 if you went to any of the extra attractions this would have been better value


The myki Visitor Pack includes:

• a full fare, concession, child or seniors myki card, pre-loaded with enough value (myki money) for one day’s travel in Zone 1, which includes the entire tram network
• discount offers at 15 attractions including Melbourne Aquarium, the National Sports Museum, Eureka Skydeck and Puffing Billy, saving visitors more than $130
• a protective myki wallet designed by renowned Melbourne cartoonist Mark Knight
• a public transport map and information on how to use myki.

[h=3]Visitor pack costs[/h]A full fare myki Visitor Pack costs $14 and includes $8 myki money for travel.
A concession, child or seniors myki Visitor Pack costs $7 and includes $4 myki money for travel.

All I wanted to do was get from Flinders St Station to Brighton Station.

 

[RooFlyer]

I wouldn't be so sure it's unique. IIRC, Seattle has a similar arrangement (but I'm ready to be corrected on that). In many other cities, using a prepaid card of some sort is by far the easiest way of getting around on public transport, despite the availability of single journey fares.

Sure, but the issue with Micky is that there is no single journey option at all.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

All I wanted to do was get from Flinders St Station to Brighton Station.

Are you never coming back to Melbourne? Keep the card for your next visit.

It's not a perfect system but considering on a saturday and sunday you get unlimited travel all day for about $4 a day with myki I think the $6 outlay is worth it

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Are you never coming back to Melbourne? Keep the card for your next visit.

It's not a perfect system but considering on a saturday and sunday you get unlimited travel all day for about $4 a day with myki I think the $6 outlay is worth it

too often in Australia we have the 'it's not perfect but....' excuse. there were half a dozen world ticketing systems we could have picked that would have been pretty much tried, tested and perfect. we really shouldn't have excuses in 2013 for not having something properly done...

the irony is probably that it's the tourists that actually WANT to buy a ticket... it seems plenty of locals are more than happy to free load on the system. why not provide a cash ticket for tourists happy and willing to pay rather than ripping them off?

coming back to Melbourne? better do it within 4 years of the card expires anyway.