Re: Plastic Metcard Weekly Ticket

[joeldel@iohk.com (Joel Delacy)]

>On 8 Jun 1998 03:27:26 GMT, "Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au> wrote:

>Hong Kong uses plastic for *all* tickets, but this is in a high-density
>closed environment.  All tickets are passed through barriers for both entry
>and exit everywhere, and are retained (for recycling) on expiry.

We have three types of plastic tickets. 
Single journey, retained when you leave the station.
Stored Value, retained when the value runs out.

Or the Octopus card with the embedded chip.

They are used on the rail systems here where you need to pass your
card over the detector as you enter and leave the stations. Most
people just swipe their wallets or bags over the detectors.

But, the same ticket is used on many (soon all) buses, only as you
enter.

Our tickets have always had a time limit imposed on them. It's set for
some extra time over the longest train trip. If you are in the system
over that time you have to get it validated, and they won't give the
the third degree asking why you took so long.

All railway stations are manned, so if the ticket has a problem, you
can always get it sorted out.

Deposit per card is about A$10, but the card will last for years.  It
can be topped up by cash or credit card at machines in the stations

Reading the complainst and questions  in this newsgroup, I really
wonder what is going on in Melbourne.  It's not difficult to find a
good system that works easily and effeciently.

Although saying that, one poor old guy had a ticket that he hadn't
used for a year, and as he got on the bus the machine told the driver
the ticket was a fake. He alerted a policeman and the poor  was taken
to the police station for a few hours questioning.

Lots of apologies, and promises to change the system when they figured
out what was wrong.

            Joel ...

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      joeldel@iohk.com     Joel Delacy   Shatin

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Peoples Republic of China

      http://www.iohk.com/UserPages/joeldel/joel.htm
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