Re: Transport ticket system collapses

["Mike Alexander" <malex@bigfoot.com>]

Having a chat to the repair man at Windsor station the other morning (after
what seems like the thousandth time these machines have been jammed) he
stated that it is the same guy at Windsor who keeps doing it, and that they
have him on video. He has been handed to the police on a number of
occassions, and they just give him a slap over the wrist, and he's back
again the next day.

The repair guy fished a folded-up metcard from the coin slot, and sighed
that he was getting very frustrated with having to come back to Windsor day
after day to clear the slot. He could only imagine how frustrating it was
for people to lose their money.

Makes me wonder why they don't trial the sort of coin slots where the coin
is laid in a recessed circle, and then falls down the slot (like the old
green public phones). They seem a lot harder to jam up. Or, like some of the
snack machines at Flinders St, where there is a sliding plate that you have
to push across to slide the coin behind a panel, where it then falls down a
slot. I've never seen one of these jammed, but then it seems that there is a
particular type of vandal out there that just have a vendetta against
metcard machines.

The basic design doesn't seem too bad, given the very few on-tram machines
that I see jammed up. I really wonder what the ratio of "genuine" faults is,
compared to faults caused by vandals?


Regards,

Mike Alexander
(malex @ bigfoot com)




"Eddie Oliver" <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au> wrote in message
3A8F2410.C72C30F2@efs.mq.edu.au">news:3A8F2410.C72C30F2@efs.mq.edu.au...
> Michael wrote:
> >
> > Exclusive front page article in today's Sunday Herald Sun:
> >
> > http://www.sundayheraldsun.com.au/
>
> Strange that it is reported that Melbourne ticket machines are out of
> order to an amazing extent, whereas Sydney CityRail ticket machines have
> (on the whole) a very good record of working properly. What does the
> collective wisdom of aus.rail offer as a reason for that difference?