The government backed down on one of the January fare changes — making Seniors Dailies only available in packs of 5. Not in a pack, really, but on a single ticket. Which meant a couple wanting that fare would have to cough up $33 in one hit.
(Some might argue that Seniors shouldn’t get any discounts better than the general concession fare, but this kind of change just said “Stuff you” at a time when the plight of some Seniors is very much in the public eye. Anyway, if you’re going to have it available, it should be available individually like most other fares.)
The other changes are still expected in January.
If, as appears to be the case, the zone bonus on periodicals being removed is to make it simpler for Myki to be completed, what gets the chop next in the name of simplicity? What if they pared away at everything that was in the least bit complicated?
Timing 2 hour tickets from the next hour, rather from the exact time. Actually removing this might make some sense, making it fairer, but if done it should be a three hour ticket, not a two hour ticket, so people can still make short local return trips on it. (Remember, back in the day, they were three hour tickets.)
2 hour tickets valid until 3am if used at or after 6pm. This definitely should be kept, as it gives a significant incentive for people to go to evening events by PT, even if they don’t normally use it. Effectively it’s similar to the weekend discount tickets, encouraging use of the system outside busy times.
Zone overlaps. Pretty key to making zones palatable in the first place, but hey, it complicates things!
The second validation on a 10×2 hour switching it to a Daily is unlikely to go, as it fits in with the Myki concept of Daily caps (equal to 2×2 hour portions, or a Weekend Saver ticket).
I don’t realistically think they’d do any of this, but hey, you never know how desperate they might get.
We already know the Weekly ticket will be effectively nobbled, replaced by a Weekly cap that runs Monday to Sunday only. This means people who currently buy a Weekly in the middle of the week will face a higher cost if they use the system for every day of that period.
- Current Weekly Z1 cost: $28.00
- Cost under Myki of using Z1 every day from Wednesday to Tuesday: Wednesday $5.60; Thursday $5.60; Friday $5.60; Saturday $2.90; Sunday $2.90; Monday $5.60; Tuesday $5.60 = $33.80.
So much for Myki always giving you the best fare.
(Source: Fares and Ticketing Manual 2008: Myki)
8 replies on “Myki — what goes next?”
Myki is an absolute failure and there should be a royal commission into it. It is also disgraceful how Lynne Kosky tried to deny seniors cheap tickets on public transport.
From a Perthite’s perspective, some of the things you have are better than we have. We have had 2 hour tickets timed from the exact time for as long as I can remember. I am not aware of extended ticket times after 6pm. And there was no ticket “change to daily” for validating a “multi-rider” twice in a day.
But having said that, the dodgy “best fare” rorts you list don’t seem to happen under the Perth SmartRider system. At least, every time I have used it on any remotely complicated route, it has calculated the best fare successfuly.
I would think that promising a best fare would give you leeway to argue when it gets it wrong, such as your midweek example. Is this not the case?
Daniel, do these concerns that you raise get passed on the Public Transport minister?
I’d assume yes, and yet nothing is done!
The high cost of living is being cultivated further by an inane, complacent and possibly insane transport minister and her cretinous, road-lobby bulldog.
A new system that is needlessly complicated and is stealthily designed to make us pay MORE?!
Unprecedented.
The current system for making a 2hr ticket valid all night after 6pm just doesn’t work reliably. I have boarded a local bus at 4pm and been given all night and yet when I board a 59 tram at 6.30pm, it frequently gives me only until 9.00pm. Myki might be dud, but the current system is nothing to write home about either.
I today sent an email to Minister Kosky asking that she reconsider the decision on taking away the weekend periodical benefit. I don’t really expect anything to happen but it made me feel slightly less annoyed for about two minutes.
Nathan, I have sent no less than 23 letters to her office and the half of which she responded to including nothing more than the deranged rantings of someone who drinks whisky whilst formulating policy.