Warning to MEL residents and visitors Metcard ends 28/12/12

[whatmeworry]

Today in MEL the paper metcard will be discontinued after today (28/12/12). From today residents and visitors will need pay $6 to get a card that they can top up with.

I can see chaos ensuing!

Metcards can no longer be used on the public transport service from Saturday.
Irregular commuters and tourists must buy a $6 myki after short-term tickets were axed.

Skybus recently started selling myki visitor packs, and there were plans for the cards to be sold at Melbourne Airport and visitors' cards to be returned and recycled.

Cookies must be enabled | Herald Sun

 

[mella2007]

Myki certainly is a disaster...why on earth this state cannot have a decent transport system with cards that actually work is beyond me

 

[tuapekastar]

It is hard to think of a more bone-headed implementation of what should have been a relatively simple task. Such an inconvenience to many visitors to our otherwise wonderful city.

 

[UP4014]

I found it hard to use the ticket systems as it was, how could you buy a ticket but it still wasn't a valid ticket?Does this add another layer of complication?Matt

 

[chrisb]

Aside from the $6 charge I found myki simple enough to use in Melbourne while on holiday. It's nice to be able to just swipe on and off without having to decode the pricing structure. It does suck that they are completely removing cash fares. The $6 per card would make it impractical for a family to catch the trams on a short visit.

It'd be nice if they refunded it if you return the card like London does.

 

[opusman]

I found it hard to use the ticket systems as it was, how could you buy a ticket but it still wasn't a valid ticket?

If you're referring to buying a ticket on a tram, and then "having to validate it", you didn't Metcard tickets purchased on trams are (were) already validated, although most tourists don't realise this.

 

[Hvr]

I found it hard to use the ticket systems as it was, how could you buy a ticket but it still wasn't a valid ticket?Does this add another layer of complication?Matt

The other benefit was the ability to buy a ticket ahead of time and use it when required. When fare increases were announced there used to be a big surge in sales to save money on tickets.

 

[QF WP]

Aside from the $6 charge I found myki simple enough to use in Melbourne while on holiday. It's nice to be able to just swipe on and off without having to decode the pricing structure. It does suck that they are completely removing cash fares. The $6 per card would make it impractical for a family to catch the trams on a short visit.

It'd be nice if they refunded it if you return the card like London does.

+1 but I'm there on business. Thankfully not a Metcard holder as well and only put $20 on it as I only frequent MEL quarterly

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Just bought 3 Mykis on our recent visit.

Biggest issues I noticed were:
1. Lack of places to buy (perhaps ALL international hotels should be able to sell them). From the HSW, we ended up just taking the tram (no fare paid) to Elizabeth St were we bought them at the 7 Eleven. I wonder how lenient the inspectors will be with guests to the city?

2. Machines slow to read. I'm sure we took a few trips for free because we didn't realise the machines took a smoko break while you stood there waiting for the beep! Hardly conducive to a seamless payment system.

3. $6 each + the top up seems like a ripoff when you are forcing people to use these. I'd suggest the card should be complementary and you just pay for the top ups.

4. Not much info in the trams. I picked up the pamphlets which said nothing in depth about how to use them. On the tram, apparantly you only swipe on unless you are transiting zones when you then need to swipe on and off. Apparantly most trams are zone 1 but no matter how hard I tried to follow the route map on board, I couldn't see where the zone 2 ones were. There was no mention of multiple trips. Once again, apparantly, once you swipe on, you're only billed for one trip per 2 hours but there was nothing in the brochures about this......or how to achieve it. I asked two policeman who were on the tram (much to my wifes horror) but they had no idea and it was the consierge who told us you have to swipe on, on each tram (but not off) and you get charged once every two hours. I still have no idea if this is true or not.

I like the idea of cards, but surely these wizzo machines could incorporate paywave + time-stamped printed docket/ticket for us tourists? At the very least have the cards available at all accommodation houses, with quality information on how to use.

 

[dajop]

J3. $6 each + the top up seems like a ripoff when you are forcing people to use these. I'd suggest the card should be complementary and you just pay for the top ups....


I like the idea of cards, but surely these wizzo machines could incorporate paywave + time-stamped printed docket/ticket for us tourists? At the very least have the cards available at all accommodation houses, with quality information on how to use.

Or take the London or Hong Kong approach where you can refund the deposit on return of the card. But hotels could easily do this too - have a stock of myki cards on hand as a service, with deposit taken and returned (or fee charged if card not returned on checkout).

 

[serfty]

...

2. Machines slow to read. I'm sure we took a few trips for free because we didn't realise the machines took a smoko break while you stood there waiting for the beep! Hardly conducive to a seamless payment system.
...

That's the biggest issue, especially when I compare these to my experience with similar systems in London, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

This is so bad, that this year they had to double the number of readers on the outbound platforms of suburban stations, many had only two and with, say 100 people disembarking in the evening Peak, 3 to 5 seconds per read was extending platform exit times up to several minutes for some. Even now with doble the readers, clusters of frustrated passengers stand around waiting their turn - others just give up and walk though.

This doubling was never budgeted for originally.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

hotels could easily do this too - have a stock of myki cards on hand as a service, with deposit taken and returned (or fee charged if card not returned on checkout).

I wonder if it's possible to integrate myki with a hotel door key?

 

[Mrmaxwell]

Or take the London or Hong Kong approach where you can refund the deposit on return of the card

Add Singapore and Thailand (Bangkok) to cities that refund the card fee if needed.

I can overlook the other shortcomings but charging a visitor a compulsory $6 card purchase fee with no refund option means their cheapest trip will be approx $9.28 for a short tram ride - plain stupid and a rip off.

A family in front of me the other day in 7-11 coughed up the $18 card purchase fees plus $10 per card credit - a whopping $58 for some tram rides around town!

As a Sydneysider I love Melbourne trams but Not Myki...

 

[turtlemichael]

I'm surprised that businesses and the tourist authorities are not shouting more about arrangements for visitors. The website is woefully inadequate as to what to do as a visitor, you can't get the visitors' pack (which in itself is a rip-off for most people) at all the critical locations and it is grossly expensive (potentially $42.00 for a family of 4 for a few tram rides). And $6.00 non-refundable for the card is simply a rip-off. I suspect the government sees visitors as a fine revenue source when they travel without tickets. The much maligned LA transport system has the answer. You hop on the bus, buy the card for $1.00 and charge it up for your day ticket with cash. As well, you can still buy single cash fares. My guess is they'll change the Melbourne system when they get the tourist reaction.

 

[openseat]

I'm sure the head of the transport ticketing in Melbourne, Bernie Carolan, will once again come out and blame users of the transport system for the problems of myki.

To think it has cost $1.5bn for this mess. You have to wonder what sort of back room deal went on with the signing of the contract with the operators of Myki by Brumby et al.

 

[cdchi1]

MYKI is a mess

I'm definitely not a creature of habit and therefore always up to giving something new a go, but I've been doing that with MYKI for a while now, and my opinion hasn't changed.

Thankfully I'm not a frequent user of transport.

 

[trentusjuventus]

I'm with many others here in wondering how so many other cities can implement efficient and ultimately successful contactless card systems for their public transport. Being originally from MEL I was happy with the metcard system, and have only been back on holiday since Myki has existed. It was fine when you had the choice of both single fare tickets and Myki and could choose based on your plans or duration of stay, but I can understand the headaches it's going to create for arriving tourists, especially those who have just got off a train, bus or even plane and need to take public transport just to get to their final destination. As a long-time resident of Taiwan, I have found the Taipei and (dare I say it) Kaohsiung systems to be extremely efficient and totally hassle free. Not to mention the other uses of the Easycard such as 7-11 and taxis.
Most other cities manage to offer a refundable deposit on their cards, why can't Melbourne? As if they are not already making enough money off the fares that they need to try and profit from the very thing used to buy the fare.

 

[JessicaTam]

I read recently that London is going to pay-wave for their public transport ticketing.

Using contactless payment cards to pay for travel on buses | Transport for London

The MYKI debacle is going from bad to worse.

 

[whatmeworry]

IIRC London still operates paper tickets? This is not just an inconvenience to irregular commuters and tourists but people have forgotten how will the elderly cope will being forced onto Myki. Most don't know how to topup online (which not been running smoothly), 7 elevens are non existent in most suburbs and it is not convenient to go to a train station for most to top up.

They need Myki machines on each tram and Bus in my opinion if Ted Failue insists on no paper tickets.

Bit OT but can you top up your account at 7 Eleven with a Amex card?

 

[Hvr]

Bit OT but can you top up your account at 7 Eleven with a Amex card?

Yes, you can.