Re: It's Sold! (The letter to the minister of transport)

["M.G.Smith" <gard@bigpond.com>]

***sorry, had to go off line for a while to write it, but here it is:


Dear Minister,
I have just returned from a holiday in your beautiful state of Victoria.
While visiting, I needed to use your Met services to get from my motel, The
Princes Park Motor Inn, to Belgrave, to ride on Puffing Billy.
I followed the clear instructions in your "fares and travel guide" and went
to buy my 1+2+3 Daily ticket needed to travel from the 7-11 store adjacent
to the motel, In Carlton North.
However they had none in stock.
As I needed a ticket to travel, I had to buy a 2 hour 1+2+3 zone ticket from
the tram, and buy 2 hour ticket from Belgrave, as trams do not have daily
tickets.
I find this very unfair as when the Met had conductors on the trams, they
could sell you a daily ticket, and buying two, 2 hour tickets, costs more
than buying a daily ticket.
As I work for CityRail here in Sydney, we have a customer service policy in
force where if the ticket vending machine (when the ticket window is closed)
can not sell you the ticket you want due to malfunction or vandalism, the
customer can travel to the other end without a valid ticket and buy one
there.
The ticket vending machine on your trams do not sell daily tickets and I am
to buy a 2 hour ticket, as I said is unfair, and not very good customer
service.
I verified this rule with a ticket inspector with Swanston Trams.
As part of having a customer friendly public transport system, I ask for any
one of the following changes:
1. Install the facility to buy a daily ticket on board trams;
2. Make it law that all Metcard sellers must stock all types of Metcard
tickets;
3. Make it law that you can travel without a valid ticket until such time
that you can get the ticket required.
I leave this to your decision, to which rule(s) you apply.