[LINK] Myki not 'swipe off'

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Myki swipe wiped 

James Campbell Sunday Herald Sun May 16, 2010 12:00AM www.heraldsun.com.au

 
HUNDREDS of thousands of tram travellers will no longer have to "swipe 
off" their myki cards in a major switch being considered to enable the 
$1.3 billion system to start operating. 

The Sunday Herald Sun has learned the Brumby Government is set to dump 
the need for myki users to "touch off" on trams when the system is 
introduced this year.

The present myki design requires travellers to touch card readers on 
exiting a tram or risk being charged as if they had travelled from zone 1 
into zone 2. This has raised concerns about the ability of the myki 
system to cope when a crush of people get on or off a tram at once.

The change would be achieved by redrawing the boundaries of Zone 1 to 
include all tram routes. 

The move is not expected to have a big impact on revenue because most 
tram routes are entirely in zone 1, apart from the 109 to Box Hill, the 
75 to Vermont South and the 86 to Bundoora.

The bus system and metropolitan trains would not be affected by the 
change.

The Sunday Herald Sun understands the radical move is being considered as 
part of a major overhaul of the Public Transport Authority.

John Fergusson, spokesman for contractor Kamco, which built myki, said 
the change to the system would not be difficult to make.

"The system has been designed around the principles of 'touch on' 
and 'touch off'," Mr Fergusson said.

"If the requirement to touch off was removed, some technical adjustments 
to the system would have to be made."

The cost to reconfigure the system would not be great, he said.

The Public Transport Users Association welcomed the move, saying touching 
off would be a disaster.

"Trams are slow enough as it is," PTUA president Daniel Bowen said.

"There have been concerns touching off will cause delays at busy tram 
stops for some time. Early trials of the myki card system showed it 
slowed trams down significantly."

Melburnians take almost 434,000 tram trips every day, according to Yarra 
Trams.

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Cheers,
Stephen