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transport

How Melbourne’s off-peak fares will work

As part of its COVID-19 response, the State Government announced in December that they will trial off-peak fares: To make it easier for metropolitan passengers to travel during quieter times and physically distance as Victoria recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, off-peak fares will be discounted for three months. From 31 January 2021, anyone using myki  ... [More]

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transport

The Two Hour fare that wasn’t

The Myki quirk that led to a legitimate free ride

Categories
transport

You can pause a Myki Pass

Since many people aren’t using public transport right now, some us who have a Myki Pass aren’t getting much out of them. Normally the only option is to get a refund. Because of the way PTV calculates refunds, this often isn’t worthwhile. Back when the COVID-19 crisis was first emerging, your friendly local public transport  ... [More]

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transport

What future for the FTZ?

The Free Tram Zone (FTZ) just turned five. It was introduced in January 2015. If you’re wondering why there was so much discussion on it last week, it’s because submissions to a Parliamentary Inquiry on the topic just closed. Transport Matters Party MP Rod Barton, who moved for the Inquiry, posted an article addressing some  ... [More]

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transport

Ten years of Myki in Melbourne

Happy birthday Myki! Yesterday marked ten years since the Myki system’s implementation in Melbourne. It was switched on for Melbourne trains on 29th December 2009. The roll-out and first ten years of operation ended up costing a whopping $1.5 billion. The only Australian system of comparable size, NSW’s Opal system, was a little bit cheaper,  ... [More]

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transport

Protip: the Myki gate doesn’t have to close behind the previous person before you can touch your card

Update – see below At busy times, queues can form at station fare gates, especially when large numbers of people arrive from multiple trains at once. Investment in more gates and faster (Vix) readers has helped – 950 new readers are being installed in 141 stations. But it’s noticeable than some people wait for the  ... [More]

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Photos from ten years ago transport

Myki ten years on, and photos from the test centre

This is part two of my ten year old photos from September 2009. At the time, Myki had been launched in regional cities, and was about to start in Melbourne. Ahead of the wider rollout, I got to look around the Myki test centre, which was fascinating. Around the place were lots of test cards  ... [More]

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transport

Some thoughts on the Myki data leak

This, the other week, was interesting: In a concerning revelation, researchers have found that myki, in conjunction with social media, can be used to uncover a wealth of information about card users. ABC: ‘Shocking’ myki privacy breach for millions of users in data release Here’s the report and media release from the Office of the  ... [More]

Categories
transport

The Myki mobile trial is progressing

Last year the government announced that Myki would be coming to mobile phones. Early testing happened late last year, and last week PTV opened up the trial to up to 4000 participants. The technology allows you to load a “virtual” Myki card onto your Android phone within Google Pay, and use it for travelling on  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Fares for short trips now double the cost of Sydney

As expected, public transport fares in Victoria go up from 1st January. This time it’s a CPI rise of 2.2% – thankfully not as high as the last four which were CPI+2.5% (budgeted by the Coalition in 2014, delivered by Labor). This takes the standard zone 1 or 1+2 daily fare to $8.80, and the  ... [More]

Categories
transport

What we know about the Myki mobile phone trial

The State Government has announced a trial of a mobile phone app for Myki. The Age: Farewell myki cards? Trial for app to let you touch on with your phone PTV: Mobile myki trial State Government: Mobile Myki Trial To Begin Here’s what we know about the trial. Will it mean the end of Myki  ... [More]

Categories
transport

Crosstown traffic / Bacchus Marsh stopover

All of us have data being captured about us all the time. For many of us that includes Myki travel data (though even that is tiny compared to the myriad of information captured by our smartphones). Mostly for me it’s the drudgery of everyday work commuting, but every so often there’s something of interest. Crosstown  ... [More]