Re: Fares - Sydney vs Melbourne

["Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au>]

>I actually think it would be a good idea to merge the two systems for both
>cities.  I know for one that here in Melbourne hundreds of people (i.e.
>students, my father) never by tickets when they're only travelling one or
>two stations, because they (they meaning my father) think it's ridiculous
to
>pay close to $2 just to travel one-way from Upwey to Boronia.  Why not do
>what someone suggested to me once and create a "municipal" ticket system,
>where you can travel to any of the stations in your council, with all inner
>city councils (i.e. 10-15 kms from the GPO) have the one ticket for the
>inner metro area.  For example, if you live in Boronia, you can travel to
>Bayswater or Upper Fern Tree Gully without having to buy a ticket for the
>entire district.  Or hell, even bring back the old neighbourhood ticket
>scheme and price it so someone travelling from Watsonia to Box Hill can
>travel three neighbourhoods (Greensborough, Inner, Box Hill) and only be
>charged what they would for a Zone 1 + 2.
>
I think the old neighbourhood system was good too but the fares would go up
if it was reintroduced. The zone system when reintroduced in the late 80s
kept more or less the same fares as single neighbourhoods eg concession for
neighbourhood was 35-45c, zone 2 or zone 3 ticket was 45c. So travelling on
the 269 from Greensborough to Box Hill was 90c under the neighbourhood
system, 45c under the zone system. As for short trip tickets, they have been
introduced progressively for a little while now. There has always been a
Rail+2 ticket available in Zone 1 under most variations of the zone system
(even I think from the original travel cards or certainly from the
neighbourhood system introduction). I believe bus contracts now stipulate
that a distance based system be available as well as the Metcard system (I
remember reading in a contemporary magazine that when National Bus tendered
for the Metbus Doncaster routes, they tendered based on only the Met
ticketing system and were not happy to have to rewrite their tender to
include a distance based ticketing system. This may account for why it is
cheaper in most cases to buy a Metcard instead of their section based
tickets). Trams have had section tickets for a while now. I guess the Met
and subsequent variants decided Rail+2 tickets weren't worth it given their
price is not much different to a Zone 2 or 3 two hour ticket whereas they
were worth it in the more expensive Zone 1.

I guess zones reduce the administration by a significant amount, make the
fare system simpler and provide more incentive to use slow cross town
services.