Comments on: Melbourne’s Mighty myki Mess (Videos)

By: Tris

Tris — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:26:27 +0000

The myki system is bad because you are charged when you get on/off and you need to validate at both ends of the trip? Wow… good luck pleasing you!

By: Amy

Amy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:17:31 +0000

The debate about myki has been an interesting one. All the really big smartcard systems around the world have taken from 5 to 10 years to rollout. If myki comes in by the end of the year it will sit at the ‘very fast’ end of that spectrum. And while London’s Oyster system has just started to extend beyond the core metro area – after 10 years of operation – the melbourne version is already covering much of the state and will within another year cover every bit of it. The coverage in the two daily papers here has been toxic, not to mention premature. I reckon it’s more to do with Melburnians still being cut about the abolition of conductors, and very little to do with myki. I hate the metcard system, I’m really looking forward to being able to change over!

By: LX...

LX... — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:47:00 +0000

Being a bit pedantic Myki isn’t delivering integrated ticketing. Melbourne has had that since the 80’s. They are replacing one fare collection system with another.

Perth and Melbourne both achieved integrated ticketing with paper based ticketing systems and later migrated onto mag-stripe and now smart card systems. Brisbane took the jump straight from paper based integrated ticketing to smart cards.

All the main capitals in Oz achieved integrated ticketing by sorting out their institutional arrangements, either by bringing all services into public ownership or moving private operators to gross cost contracts.

Sydney the one capital that has never dealt with the institutional issues and unsurprisingly is the one that has had the most difficulty getting integrated ticketing.

Every roll out of a new fare system in Melbourne seems to be plagued by controversy. Happened with Metcard in the 90’s and apparently with an earlier system of scratch cards that was withdrawn.

By: Stranded on the North Shore

Stranded on the North Shore — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:48:21 +0000

Few interesting and valid points raised, but as for “swiping off”, “logging off” or “snapping off” (snapper), people will simply need to get used to it. That’s the most effective way to collect the right fare…

From the videos, The Myki seemed to be quite sluggish reading the card… Something we have experienced in few places, but not in HK (Octopus) or London (Oyster). So bring it on, Auckland, integrated ticketing – can’t wait!

By: Jeremy Harris

Jeremy Harris — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:57:34 +0000

I think we’ve made the right decision by going with a company that has set up systems in over 100 cities worldwide and avoids any conflicts of interest…

I do worry we will not have enough readers at Britomart, Newmarket station and the Downtown ferry terminal mainly due to the steep budget cuts for implementation…