MYKI - we are part of the solution
The debate at Prahran Town Hall was a hit! We strategised means of fixing the problem, attended by Prahran's Member Clem Newton-Brown. The Ministry of Transportation will shortly receive our collated results. Good work to everybody involved and thanks for your support!
In late 2012 Victoria disbanded its previous ticketing system in favour of Myki, the electronic card based ticketing system that has been rolled out at great taxpayer expense ($1.5B+) to poor reviews and numerous technical faults over the past couple of years.
This has created an immediate inconvenience to the complete spectrum of public transport commuters in Melbourne, and in particular people on lower incomes, tourists/backpackers and other guests to the city.
Melbourne has become the first major international city with no short term ticketing option. This means that you cannot simply board the first public tram that arrives and pay on board - you first need to pay for a Myki card, then find somewhere to top it up.
The only way to top up cards is at major stations, at convenience stores such as 7/11 or using a bank transfer method that can take a couple of days to restore your balance. If you're late and/or low on credit, you're out of luck. You either travel without enough credit, or stop to charge it up and be late.
At night this poses significant safety issues in areas where there are no nearby top up machines or outlets, particularly for women by themselves.
Meanwhile, Myki machine readers often do not work.
Finally, ticket inspectors have been noted to be overly aggressive, rude, threatening and demeaning. They have allegedly demonstrated a lack of patience or understanding when enforcing fines, despite the limits of the flawed system. Imagine being a new guest to the city, having limited knowledge of how this unnecessarily complicated system works, and find yourself fined for this. This is not the best first impression for a city trying to make itself known to the world.
These combine for a lot of problems, headaches and unnecessary stresses for commuters who now have more to worry about in their lives.
The system is broken, and its time to fix or replace it before it spirals out of control.