Re: [Sydney] Ticketing - was Light Rail into the CBD?

["Al" <alpout@optusnet.com.au>]

"Bill Bolton" <billbolton@computer.org> wrote in message
news:tcc4htskdlmq7gtveo16hrsp5h28i7t710@4ax.com...
> "Peter Parker" <parkerp@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
>
> > Though not perfect, Melbourne's multimode zonal/time system scores
> > considerable better than Sydney's.
>
> A colleague who is moving to Ballarat was telling me today what he
> would have to do to get to get to his new place of work someway down
> St Kilda Rd in Melbourne.  Instead of the single Travel Pass he uses
> in Sydney for an equivalent journey distance by CityRail (interurban
> then suburban services) and STA bus, he will now have to buy two
> separate tickets from different operators and will be paying nearly
> 100%  more in fares.... and to get it to a mere 100% increase he's had
> to commit to a yearly ticket arrangement on the Ballarat Sector, so
> has much less flexibility.
>
> As in all things nothing is perfect and the Melbourne approach has its
> own significant shortcomings.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bill
>
>
> Bill Bolton
> Sydney, Australia

Bill,
Seeing's as you come from Sydney, and may not have much of an idea of
Victorian geography, Ballarat is about 130km west of Melbourne CBD.  It took
me over an hour to drive there from my place in Melbourne, and that was on the
favourable side of things (Coburg).  Before that, I lived in St Kilda, which
took about 15 minutes, on a good day, to get into the city (car, tram or
train, they were all about the same).

Now, I could commute from Morisset to Sydney everyday, and it's just luck that
it is one operator.  I could also commute from, say, Robertson, or Manly, and
it isn't.

Certainly, if I was your friend, I would have looked at where I'm working, and
where I want to live, before deciding on a commute that's probably the best
part of 2 hours each way.

Al