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Re: Metcard Validation

sthyer@anatomy.unimelb.edu.au (Stuart Thyer) writes:

   As I understand it, the way the ticket money will ultimately be divided up
   among  the 2 train systems, 2 tram systems and countless bus operators is
   that when you travel on ANY different part of the system, so the machine
   knows a journey has taken place.

   ie.  Get on a bus, buy ticket, validate, the bus company gets it's share. 
   Then get on the train and validate and the train operator gets its share. 
   If you don't validate, then your journey is not recorded as having
   happened and you are not recorded on the system as having travelled,
   therefore the train company does not get money for having you trravel.

Haha. ROFL. 
It will only ever be a sort-of-statistical-but-really-a-guess distribution.
Cannot be anything else.
At the city stations, if you have a Metcard and validate, all they know is
that you caught a train. (Actually, not even that. They know you entered the
'ticket only' area.) Unless you disembark at one of the few stations
with exit barriers (another city station, perhaps 6 others in the 'burbs?)
there is no information about which line you used. Thus, no information on
which to base a distribution of fares.
If you come from the suburbs, all they know is that you left the ticket only
area, with no information about which line you traveled on.
Of course, there is virtually no information at all about travel between
suburban stations without barriers, even though you may travel on both
train companies lines.
This claim about fare distribution is a joke. Must be. Can't possibly work.

Think about it. 
Would _you_ run a business with this as the determinant of your income?

It's a joke. Just goes to show that JK has sense of humour. :-)










-- 
Clive Newall <crn@bby.com.au> / Broker Services Australia Ltd Melb Australia
"I think Casper is the ghost of Richie Rich. I wonder how Richie died?"
"Perhaps he realized how hollow the pursuit of money is and took his own life"
  --Bart and Lisa Simpson