Just came across an Expression of Interest (E.O.I.) in today's (14/2)
"Saturday Age", placed by the Dept. of Treasury and Finance. The aim of
this E.O.I. is to perform the second phase of customer surveys on
Melbourne's public transport system. "This survey will be used to
provide quarterly and annual estimates of the total number of trips and
the distance covered by these trips, so revenue attributable to each
entity can be allocated, based on a pre-determined formula."
Interesting, but doesn't OneLink's ticketing system will collect this
sort of data already, or is this E.O.I. is for V/Line Passenger? If it
is for the former, then perhaps the system is not as high-tech as what
P.T.C./OneLink has been telling everyone. Consider the privatisation of
P.T. is not too far down the track, I wonder what the private buyers
will think about this? "Pre-determined formula", has anyone got any
idea what this formula looks like? Sounds like there is little
incentive for the private company to improve service, as the revenue
allocation is all based on such a formula.
Finally, I have been told by a reliable source that MetCards will only
be available from automatic ticketing machines at all railway stations,
including premium ones. in the near future. Apparently station staff
have been instructed not to issue MetCards from booking office machines
(B.O.Ms.) unless at extreme circumstances, such as breakdown of
ticketing machines! Instead, they will be manning the barrier gates
(cleaning will not be carried out by them as it will be contracted out
soon). So those of you, who like to purchase your tickets from a "real
person" now must learn how to deal with machines!!
Cheers,
I.C.
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