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

["Daniel Bowen" <dbowen@custard.REMOVE.net.au>]

"Mark Pearson" <markkoala@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
3b270ac5$0$25467$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:3b270ac5$0$25467$7f31c96c@news01.syd.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.

If you're saying next time you're travelling in Melbourne that you'd like to
pay more, then feel free to buy some extra tickets, or ask at a staffed
station where to make a donation :-)

> 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??

They have no accurate way of working out where you go. The validators cannot
track where you go in the cases where you enter via a gated station, but
exit via an ungated one.

>From time to time you will see various forms of surveys done - I recently
saw teams of six people per platform, counting the numbers of people on each
train going through South Yarra and Richmond. I believe these figures are
used as the basis for paying the companies.


Daniel
--
Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia
dbowen@custard.REMOVE.net.au
Melbourne public transport FAQ http://www.custard.net.au/melbtrans/