Re: Tram Announcements: another Victorian election conspiracy theory

[cmgord@ecr.mu.oz.au (Christopher_Martin GORDON)]

: But you do not validate every boarding, so you *are* ignoring the rules.

Not ignoring, just breaking.

: Yes I do - the only time I do not is when the validators are out of action.

And our validators were out of use for about 3-6 months after people
attacked them.  Oh well I still validate each morning.
(but not the trams, I can't be bothered, my first objective is to
find a seat, then if a validator is in reach then I will validate,
otherwise I will stay in my seat until my stop, unless there is someone
more needing of my seat).

: No validation required - they were randonly checked by on-board staff, and
: were sold from vending machines at the stops.

If validation was required on boarding do you think the everyone would
validate (assuming the ticket was already valid)?

: No - they are now sold on board - the vending machines at the stops were
: prone to vandalism resulting in unavailability and theft, and it was
: actually cheaper for them to shut them all down and put staff on the trams.

Are they called conductors?  (Maybe Melbourne should get them one day).

: Not really, although that has been the case from day 1, when there were few
: on board staff - the likelihood of being randomly checked was about 50%, so
: the regulars did not take the chance.

Chance in Melbourne is about 5%.  They will target a group of trams for a
week or so, then go away for about 2 months.

So in theory when you travel to/from Melbourne Park in Jan then they will
be on your trams, or at the tram stops helping.  The other routes will be
a little light on with CSE.
                                 
Another interesting thing is when trams move high levels of people validation
and tickets is out of the question.  This is backed up by trams traveling
to/from the grand prix which are usually packed on the weekend have free
travel.
        



--

Chris Gordon
http://www.ecr.mu.oz.au/~cmgord