Re: [Melb] Public to be trained to buy tickets from shops rather than ticket machines

["Mark Pearson" <markkoala@optusnet.com.au>]

I am from Sydney and I don't really understand how the multimodal system
works in Melb.

But.... I paid $5.50 for an all day Zone 1 ticket.

If the newagent gets 5%  ie. 27.5c
The Feds via GST get 10% - 50c
Ticket Printing & Distribution Costs - (who knows ??)

I caught a train from Williamstown and the a tram to Fitzroy had a coffee
and then went back again. Contribution to rail & tram was about $2.35 each
way. Great for me.. not much for them. If I catch a STA bus from Parramatta
to Macquarie Uni (about 10km) it cost $3.70 each way.

Now that there are 2 rail companies and 2 tram companies, how do they figure
out who gets what?
Is that what the validating machines do?
Does the state government heavily subsidise all 4 companies?
Do they accurately trace each trip I made?
What happens when I get off at Williamstown station and there is no gates or
way of checking tickets??

If this has been covered on this newsgroup before, I apologise.

Mark P.