[LINK] more myki woes

[Scott Howard]

On Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Marghanita da Cruz <marghanita at ramin.com.au
> wrote:

> As I said train users (including MRT/Metros and Istanbul Light rail), swipe
> their ticket before and after they get off the vehicle - which allows the
> vehicle to continue its journey. Do the buses have a locator built into
> their ticket machines, so they can calculate distance?
>

I'm not sure if the location is automatic (GPS/etc) or manually done by the
driver, but one way or another it exists - just like it does on Sydney buses
currently (manually done by the driver).


> Swiping a bus ticket getting off the bus will slow things down even more.
> Is a cash fare available and what is the cost?


In practice it doesn't seem to slow things down at all. There are a total of
4 readers, one on either side of each door. They are also active before the
bus comes to a stop, so before the bus has even stopped you'll have a
significant number of people who have already tagged out which speeds things
up significantly.

Remember, these are contactless RFID cards, so there's no "swiping" as such.
Most people simply hold their wallet or even their entire purse/bag/etc up
to the reader for it to register. I don't recall if there are cash fares or
not - like I said I've had an Ez-Link card for over 7 years so every time
I'm there I use that.


> Noting that the footprint of both Singapore and HK is much smaller than
> Sydney. In HK there seem to be only two bus fares ($3.70 and $3.40 both
> terminating at a railway station)
> <http://www.mtr.com.hk/eng/lr_bus/bus_rf_index.html>


Singapore has completely variable fares for both Rail and Bus, which depend
on exactly where you get on and off, not unlike Sydney.

 Scott