Myki/Richmond station vs Year of the fan

[The Speaker]

Here's the kicker. It would have cost $300 million to implement the Oyster in Melbourne. Sure, there'd be some hidden charges, but it was a proven, operational system. But, no, we had to have our own special, barely operational system, designed and developed by bureaucrats, that wound up costing $1.5 billion. You tell me how many classrooms or hospital beds a billion dollars of your tax buys. You could go a fair way towards making public transport free for that kind of money, and actually encourage people to start getting off our roads.

Even more of a kicker - TransPerth introduced a similar, better system than Myki, earlier than Myki, for $35 million. How hard could it be to look to another state and do what they did?

 

[Kram]

Perf>Melbourne

 

[tugga]

I was fortunate enough to be staying at the Pullman (formerly the Hilton) on Thursday night, but on my way back to my room, I noticed the throngs of people trying to get onto Jolimont platform was ridiculous.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

The system is not the problem its the dumb people using it who still try and feed their card through it rather touch on/off and dont have their card out and ready to use before they get to the turnstile.

Agree with this. Like the people that are queued up for 15-20 minutes to get food or drinks at a big event and still seem to have no idea what they want when they get to the front, let alone having their money ready.

I was fortunate enough to be staying at the Pullman (formerly the Hilton) on Thursday night, but on my way back to my room, I noticed the throngs of people trying to get onto Jolimont platform was ridiculous.

Over 80,000 people trying to get home. I'm afraid there's no way around it. People just need to be patient.

 

[De Iulio2Wiggins]

The system is not the problem its the dumb people using it who still try and feed their card through it rather touch on/off and dont have their card out and ready to use before they get to the turnstile.

The system is the problem. Hong Kong: 7.1 million people, 89% mostly travel by public transport. Melbourne: 4.1 million people, less than a third mostly travel by public transport. Yet I see many more bottlenecks at station exits in Melbourne than I did in Hong Kong. With the Octopus, you just wave your wallet in the direction of the reader as you walk through. With Myki, you have to stop for a second or two with your card touching the reader directly. Myki is a dud system and the world's most expensive. It's embarrassing, really.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

The system is the problem. Hong Kong: 7.1 million people, 89% mostly travel by public transport. Melbourne: 4.1 million people, less than a third mostly travel by public transport. Yet I see many more bottlenecks at station exits in Melbourne than I did in Hong Kong. With the Octopus, you just wave your wallet in the direction of the reader as you walk through. With Myki, you have to stop for a second or two with your card touching the reader directly. Myki is a dud system and the world's most expensive. It's embarrassing, really.

The infrastructure is by far a bigger problem and cause for traffic congestion than the ticketing system. If we had London's rail network and you wanted to go from, say Box Hill to Eltham, it would probably take about 8-10 minutes. With what we have at the moment (catch a train all the way into the city, then back out), it would take over an hour. That's why we have so many cars on the road.

 

[grouse mate]

The system is the problem. Hong Kong: 7.1 million people, 89% mostly travel by public transport. Melbourne: 4.1 million people, less than a third mostly travel by public transport. Yet I see many more bottlenecks at station exits in Melbourne than I did in Hong Kong. With the Octopus, you just wave your wallet in the direction of the reader as you walk through. With Myki, you have to stop for a second or two with your card touching the reader directly. Myki is a dud system and the world's most expensive. It's embarrassing, really.

I always put my wallet on the reader and it works, did it today. I see many others doing the same. Very easy to be critical of something you obviously dont understand how to use.

 

[De Iulio2Wiggins]

I always put my wallet on the reader and it works, did it today. I see many others doing the same. Very easy to be critical of something you obviously dont understand how to use.

That wasn't the case for many years after Myki was implemented, and I know because I was part of the long queue trying to get out of Prahran station every weekday morning. So, after many years, they've finally upgraded some Myki readers to do what a system designed in the 1990s and a fifth of the price was already doing. Outstanding.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

That wasn't the case for many years after Myki was implemented, and I know because I was part of the long queue trying to get out of Prahran station every weekday morning. So, after many years, they've finally upgraded some Myki readers to do what a system designed in the 1990s and a fifth of the price was already doing. Outstanding.

How is any of that relevant to this thread?

 

[Leeda]

I go to the rear entrance. At this station and in life.

Mate... life gives you a toilet and you have to use it ... but hell gives you shit and you read it.. bite it and you shouldn't swallow. REally.... just gagging.

 

[De Iulio2Wiggins]

How is any of that relevant to this thread?

You're joking, aren't you? Anyway, said my piece, I'm not hanging around to argue with Kamco shills and astroturfers.

 

[tandino]

Caught the train to watch the Australia v England World Cup match, got off at Richmond and it was ****ing ridiculous, bordering on dangerous.

It's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

You're joking, aren't you? Anyway, said my piece, I'm not hanging around to argue with Kamco shills and astroturfers.

We're talking about the issues (if there are any) of getting to the MCG using the Myki system in the present day. So, yes, your rant about how tough it was to negotiate a Wednesday morning at Prahran station ten years ago is hilariously irrelevant, unless they start scheduling AFL fixtures on weekday mornings at Toorak Park.

 

[nick1408]

I must say I was surprised by the amount of people at the Richmond station when I went there as I assumed the gates would be open. It was slow getting through but my bigger complaint was I didn't know which platform had the next train to Spencer Street. Unlike the majority it seems I was heading in the opposite direction and there is just no signage (that I could see) to indicate the next train into the city. To me, the signage is the easier issue to fix but the gates will become more of an issue if the queues are there for most/all games at the G this year

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

http://ptv.vic.gov.au/news-and-events/news/introducing-next-generation-myki-gates/

These gates are often tricky and are not seamless at all. You can often wait up to a minute whilst someone fumbles around trying to get their card and the machine to match up, that's how bad the myki system can be.

The next gen gates are a 1000x better than the green readers that currently exist. The current green ones you get idiots who put thier card in every other spot other than where the screen tells you(It says touch your card below with an arrow pointing to where it should be)
They added a lot more gates that the readers and old Metcard gates that used to be there.
Even without the gates the MCG it was a bottleneck at that end. Once you got inside it starts moving freely.

My main complaint 15 years on from the opening of etihad, is that trains from the east stop for 10 mins or so at flinders station, hundreds on board with only a dozen or so getting on or off. This is in the time just before a footy game. On the way back theres always qute a wait.

And they wonder why we hate etihad

That's because Flinders St is where trains terminate. Drivers will swap over and get the train ready for the next service.

Unlike the majority it seems I was heading in the opposite direction and there is just no signage (that I could see) to indicate the next train into the city. To me, the signage is the easier issue to fix but the gates will become more of an issue if the queues are there for most/all games at the G this year

There is a screen on the punt road side of the MCG exit with the next train departures. They need one on the MCG side as well.

The big problem is we got a company who didn't have experience in smartcard ticketing. Just look at Sydney. They have Cubic who have a lot of experience in it.

 

[Rob]

Even more of a kicker - TransPerth introduced a similar, better system than Myki, earlier than Myki, for $35 million. How hard could it be to look to another state and do what they did?

Have to admit, as someone from Perth I can't work out why Myki is such a disaster. It seems like it's exactly the same system - in fact Melbourne's ticketing structure appears to be a lot less complex than ours so theoretically a smart card system would be a easier to implement.

 

[smeltitdeltit]

I never understood the hate regarding myki. Sure, it may have gone over budget, but as a regular user, it works for me.

Go try one of any number of overseas versions (most of which were implemented over a decade before Myki)
And you will see how mentally challenged our system is

 

[grouse mate]

Summary of the thread so far, people fumbling around in bags/wallets looking for their myki is a fault of the system. People who don't know how to touch on/off regardless of how many arrows, bright lights and whatever else after 5 years is again another fault of the system. 30,000 people trying to get into a train station all at once causes a queue a to form, well **** me drunk, what a shock.

 

[Pessimistic]

The next gen gates are a 1000x better than the green readers that currently exist. The current green ones you get idiots who put thier card in every other spot other than where the screen tells you(It says touch your card below with an arrow pointing to where it should be)
They added a lot more gates that the readers and old Metcard gates that used to be there.
Even without the gates the MCG it was a bottleneck at that end. Once you got inside it starts moving freely.


That's because Flinders St is where trains terminate. Drivers will swap over and get the train ready for the next service.


There is a screen on the punt road side of the MCG exit with the next train departures. They need one on the MCG side as well.

The big problem is we got a company who didn't have experience in smartcard ticketing. Just look at Sydney. They have Cubic who have a lot of experience in it.

You are a smartarse. One munute we are saying we need to progress, next trains have to stop at flinders st because they terminat there. One hundred year old practice. I wouldnt mind if the train terminates and another was ready to go round the loop. There never ever is, even though there are hundreds of people needing to do that, obviously so because there is a big game on

 

[Pessimistic]

Go try one of any number of overseas versions (most of which were implemented over a decade before Myki)
And you will see how mentally challenged our system is

Because in alot of cases, they keep the prefiois paper system. Not here and the reson is so they can sack people on pt who actually provide a service, but replace each one with three IT peopl to keep a ridiculoius syestem running

 

[nick1408]

You are a smartarse. One munute we are saying we need to progress, next trains have to stop at flinders st because they terminat there. One hundred year old practice. I wouldnt mind if the train terminates and another was ready to go round the loop. There never ever is, even though there are hundreds of people needing to do that, obviously so because there is a big game on

Probably not so much for this thread but why do trains need to terminate at Flinders St? I have only used a comparable system in London but I don't remember any trains needing a 10 minute changeover in the middle of town. To me, if that happened in London the system would stop

 

[smeltitdeltit]

Because in alot of cases, they keep the prefiois paper system. Not here and the reson is so they can sack people on pt who actually provide a service, but replace each one with three IT peopl to keep a ridiculoius syestem running

I'm a young, middle income earning adult, who is fairly technically competent.

I'm more than willing to pay for my fare.
Trouble is that they make it too difficult.

A few weeks ago, I decided to go see a film.
I logged onto myki, topped up my card.
It these said it could take up to 48 hours for my deposit to take effect.
I caught the train a few hours later. The machine said I had no credit.
I shrugged my shoulders
I got to my destination
I did the same in reverse.
My account wasn't charged due no credit.
48 hours later my account was credited. After the fact.
Essentially I had two free rides despite doing my best to pay

It's like they don't want you to pay

 

[Pakenhamsaint]

You are a smartarse.

I'm only pointing out why it happens.

Probably not so much for this thread but why do trains need to terminate at Flinders St? I have only used a comparable system in London but I don't remember any trains needing a 10 minute changeover in the middle of town. To me, if that happened in London the system would stop

It's always been that way. Started well before the city loop was even thought of. I guess they felt Flinders St station being a central point where things start and end .There's a bit of slack built in to make sure the next service the train forms leaves on time and to give the driver a few minutes to set up the displays and the radio.

In London no doubt they have different ways of doing things. The underground run thier trains though the city and out the other side and drivers change over at depots and other places outside the city centre.

 

[Pessimistic]

I'm only pointing out why it happens.


It's always been that way. Started well before the city loop was even thought of. I guess they felt Flinders St station being a central point where things start and end .There's a bit of slack built in to make sure the next service the train forms leaves on time and to give the driver a few minutes to set up the displays and the radio.

In London no doubt they have different ways of doing things. The underground run thier trains though the city and out the other side and drivers change over at depots and other places outside the city centre.

They are intending to put that system in, constantly running trains.

My point is a penny could drop and people could see there a game of footy on and arrange for trains to go quicker. It helps all travellers when sports fans are moved on quickly

 

[RightorKhan]

Sorry but I stopped reading this pro-liberal propaganda at "during the weak".