[LINK] Vic transport smartcard to cost $1bn

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Craig Sanders wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 03:13:00PM +1100, Craig Sanders wrote:
>> we've had a single ticketing system for over 20 years. you can buy
>> two-hour, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly tickets. one ticket lets you
>> travel as much as you want in the time allowed(*) in the travel zone
>> that it is valid for. 
> 
> in case it's not obvious from what i wrote, the one ticket is valid on
> all forms of public transport in melbourne: trams, trains, and buses.
>  -

Sydney daily/weekly/montly/annual passes are valid on all forms of transport
within the relevant zones - not very attractive if you do less than 10 trips a
week or one long trip.

But I ommitted to mention that in both Canberra and Sydney, there are pre-paid 10
trip bus only tickets,  which is convenient and economical for irregular travel.
The
travel 10 is flexible as it lets you pay for multiple zones - though not multiple
modes of transport.

In Sydney, the travel-10 are zone based, valid for one trip only and 10 individuals
could travel on one ticket on one trip. In Canberra, each passenger needs
their own pre-paid ticket.

There is a financial and convenience incentive to pre-purchase tickets
- prepayment would also deliver a windfall to the operator.

There are also a myriad of concessions - student, pension etc.

Validating the ticket when boarding buses/at trainstations can be slow, so the
contactless smartcard would speed up the process, particularly in peak hours.

I am not sure how the proposed smartcards were to be procured or topped up.

We once had trams in Sydney...
> The demise of the trams occurred rapidly between 1949 and 1961, to be largely replaced by government operated diesel motor buses.
<http://www.railpage.org.au/tram/goddmack.html>


> your journey can use any or all of these forms of transport, as many
> times as you wish within the time limit that the ticket is valid for.
> 
> 
> btw, as well as what i mentioned about the 2-hour ticket being stamped
> for the hour after it's validated, your ticket is valid as long as you
> board your final vehicle before it expires. so if you board a bus two
> minutes before your ticket expires, it's still valid until you get off.
> i'm not 100% sure that it's that way officially but that's the way it
> works in practice.
> 
> makes no difference if you've got a daily ticket, but it's great if
> you're poor and have only bought a 2-hour ticket.
> 
> 
> craig
> 


-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202