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.
To explain, the fare structure for trams was simplified a few years ago. Whilst the vast majority of the tram network is Zone 1, there are some short sections of Routes 75, 86 and 109 which (physically) fall in Zone 2, which has a cheaper fare than Zone 1. The main changes were that the entire tram network fare zone was set to Zone 1 by default, sections in Zone 2 were reassigned as being in the Zone 1/Zone 2 overlap and therefore the need to buy a (fairly pricey) Zone 1+2 ticket when crossing zones on trams was abolished. However, for passengers whose entire journey is within the overlap, they can still get the cheaper Zone 2 fare by tapping on and off to confirm that their trip was in Zone 2 only. Failure to tap off will result in paying a Zone 1 fare.
Since these overlap areas are a fair way from the CBD (
consult this map showing the Zone1/Zone 2 overlap in the diagonal stripes), for the vast majority of tourists (and tram users in general), you only need to tap on. Walking straight off without tapping off will still result in paying the correct Zone 1 fare unless you fall under the previously explained exception.
The map shows that the tram zone changes created some anomalies. The obvious one is at the eastern end of Route 109, where the Box Hill tram stop is in the overlap, but the very nearby Box Hill train station isn't. Therefore, a tram passenger from the Spencer Street station to Box Hill station tram stops (or vice versa) only needs to pay a Zone 1 fare (2 hour full fare: $3.50), while a train passenger needs to pay a Zone 1+2 fare ($5.92).
As far as leniency goes, one inspector had my teenage niece in tears because she had bought a ticket but didn't know to validate it. She's from Adelaide and is the kind of girl who would never think of skipping a fare. She's ridiculously honest. I can't see any joy there.
The nickname might be a bit distasteful, but Melbourne ticket inspectors aren't called
Gestapo for nothing. There have been several incidents of assault
by ticket inspectors, for example. Their general attitude seems to be to intimidate and humiliate anyone who hasn't managed to follow the woeful system for whatever reason.
Lots of Myki people out in force on Friday and Saturday explaining the system to those who had held out...
With the discounts versus Metcard thast had been offered I was surprised that this was needed.
Myki has been a farce for years. People, such as myself, held onto Metcard until they were pushed. The discounts weren't nearly as spectacular as the problems with Myki itself.
), which when raining would be a BIG difference!
