Re: Metcard Private Ticket Inspectors

[billboltonREMOVE-TO-EMAIL@computer.org (Bill Bolton)]

"David Proctor" <daproc.spambait@umpires.com> wrote:

> but trams and buses should be validated on every boarding.

I hardly ever see a Sydney STA bus with a validator that that is
rejecting valid tickets or isn't working at all.  In my brief visits
to Melbourne I quite often see both of these things happen on the
trams, so from my own experiences plus the reports in this newsgroup I
can only assume it is a regular occurrence.

On a Sydney STA bus you pass the validators at entry to the vehicle.
No matter what class of bus, they are always in the same position,
while in a Melbourne tram its up to you to locate the validator, which
varies with the class of tram concerned. On a crowded tram you may not
be able to get to a validator, let alone the ticket machine,  before
leaving the vehicle.

Also, if you buy a ticket from the ticket machine on a tram and try to
validate it immediately after purchase, the validator rejects it, as
the ticket  machine has validated it at issue.  So there is no
consistent set of validation procedures on Melbourne trams.  Sometimes
you board with a ticket and sometime you don't, sometime you need to
validate the ticket you have, sometime you don't and sometime you
can't.

The Met seems to have gone out of its way to create a user unfriendly
system with a deliberately inconsistent sets of behaviour patterns....
no wonder the users don't like it!

Cheers,

Bill