myki’s Integrated Ticketing Disaster Continues

 

The introduction of the massively budget overblown integrated ticketing card for Victoria continues its incredible tale of disaster.

The project has cost $1.35 billion and, at last report, is $350m over budget.

The latest bombshell for the so-called myki card is the revelation that the government paid $1.2m just to change the screens of the myki validators from black and white to colour.

The change on almost 500 trams and 2,500 buses and coaches meant that some validators had to be ‘remanufactured’ which Opposition shadow minister for public transport, Terry Mulder, says is really code for meaning ‘some myki validators had to be thrown in the rubbish bin’.

The public now knows only because documents obtained under freedom of information had revealed the expensive change had happened.

Melbourne people are better off walking!

Melbourne’s trams will each have between four and 20 myki validators once installation is complete, while two-door route buses have a typical three standalone validators and a further validator on the myki equivalent of a ticket machine.

The Age newspaper reports today that the government still says ticket system is not yet reliable enough to be used on trams, but commuters, frustrated at having to buy a separate Metcard for trams, are trying their luck with myki. Ticket inspectors will warn people caught using myki on trams will be advised not to.

The Public Transport Users Association said people were frustrated at having to buy a separate Metcard ticket for trams if they were already using myki on the trains. ”Melbourne has had multimodal ticketing since the 1980s and the Government chose to switch on myki only on trains, which is a backwards step.”

Today that association published a list of what it has detected wrong with the card so far:

  • Confusion over myki being valid on metropolitan trains, but not on trams or buses (particularly as trams and buses do not display “Testing only” notices in vehicles or on the scanners)
  • Some City station gates do not respond to cards, or respond very slowly
  • Scanner response time is unpredictable – sometimes fast, sometimes slow
  • Scanner beep tone does not differentiate between touch-on and touch-off (yet it does distinguish between full fare and concession, which is useless to passengers)
  • Confusion over fares, because scanners display the price of the fare (eg $2.94), but not what the fare is or when it expires (eg 2 hour Zone 1, expires 10am)
  • Reports of some trips from zone 2 through zone 1 to zone 2 (eg Greensborough to Highett) being charged at a zone 2-only rate (the correct fare is zone 1+2)
  • Reports of some Myki Pass trips being charged a default (two zone) fare when not touching-off, which is not meant to happen
  • Delays in processing mean some cards require activation at station machines and/or registration on the web site, despite cover letter claiming they are already registered
  • Call Centre staff unable to fix anything other than the simplest problems; in many cases they are sending extra cards out instead
  • Cases of call Centre “service request” referrals for more complex problems resulting in the problem not being fixed, but irrelevant publicity material being emailed to the customer instead
  • 21 stations have no Myki vending machines, including busy stations such as South Yarra, Box Hill, Frankston. Most of these are staffed stations, where a Metcard machine could be replaced by a Myki machine, leaving numerous other Metcard machines and booking office staff able to sell Metcards.
  • Some suburban stations have insufficient scanners to cope with peak hour crowds (particularly evenings when large numbers of people will need to touch-off their Myki tickets in quick succession)

And myki web site problems:

  • Excessive delays between online topups and the money being available on the card
  • A number of reports of online topups or pass purchases going “missing”, despite the money being taken out of the customer’s bank account
  • Delays in some cards ordered online arriving in the mail
  • Delays in travel history being listed on the web site
  • Travel history excludes some trips
  • Travel history zone information is blank
  • Some parts of the web site incompatible with some web browsers, including some versions of Firefox and Apple Safari, and all versions of Google Chrome
  • Web site order form is difficult to use: rejects suburb if missing a space, even if it is a common spelling such as “Glenhuntly” (which is not technically correct, but matches the railway station name); rejects given names if there is a space at the end of it. In most cases the web site will reject the entry but not tell the user specifically what the problem is.
  • Web site terminology confusing (eg “Waiting patron call” appears to indicate an ordered card has been sent)
  • Pass expiry date shown on web site is misleading, for instance showing February 5th when it is actually 3am on February 5th, eg the ticket effectively expires at the end of the day of February 4th. (Platform scanners show the full date/time, which could also be misleading, but at least is accurate.)
  • Transaction PDF report does not immediately download, but is emailed later, but some PDFs do not arrive, or are delayed
  • Transaction PDF report does not show all charges incurred; shows “zone 2″ for stations in the zone 1/2 overlap; uses complex jargon like “Single Trip Stored Value product (City Saver)”; does not show opening balance; is not in a format suitable for business/tax purposes.
  • Web site confusingly refers to zone 0 (which is actually the City Saver zone

Incredible.

Let’s just trust we have a smooth ride with our integrated ticketing.
EARLIER DEVELOPMENTS
myki now an “overcooked Christmas turkey” -Videos

Backgrounder with videos

NZ to get integrated ticketing from French company Thales

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