Re: Metcard - new message on tickets

["Cosmo" <cosmo.69@mailcity.com>]

Roderick Smith wrote in message <01be240c$8f84b8c0$0c2e11cb@rodsmith>...
>The one and only note-accepting machine was out of use at Surrey Hills for
>at least one week recently.  Japan has had workable not-accepting machines
>since 1980 or earlier, and a Japanese firm is part of the OneLink combine:
>surely it could have brought existing expertise with it.
>--
>Regards
>Roderick Smith
>Rail News Victoria Editor
>
>Craig Haber <albatross@harnessnet.com.au> wrote in article
>> Speaking of Metcard, the big (ie, notes and eftpos) machine has been out
>> of service for at least 3 weeks now at Rosanna.  It was just switched
>> off for some time, then they came and removed all it's insides!  Damn
>> thing, and the nearby coin only machine has also been defective
>> intermittently.  Really great.....
>

I've been catching the train from Holmesglen for the past three weeks, and
for the whole time neither of the machines (1 "big", 1 "little") have been
working. Also, the EFTPOS facility on the "big" has been removed and the gap
covered up with a metal plate, and the dot-matrix displays on both machines
are non-existent, instead replaced with a small clear perspex section that
enables you to see inside the machines. And despite signs warning "machines
out of order", every morning I see al least 3 different people trying to
feed coins into the machines. If the MET (or whatever the f*ck they are
called now) want to improve the ticketing debacle, they should take notice
of the newspaper guy who is there... he sells tickets, like the machines but
is also able to help the elderly, give directions etc, and also doesn't eat
your 10-buck note without spitting out a ticket.....