Increase in Go Card system failures running busses later?

[entilza]

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed a sudden increase in Go Card host failures on busses?

Over the past month, give or take, there has been a sharp increase in events where the host won't communicate with all the terminals.  This normally results in the bus sitting at the stop for an extra 2 minutes, running it late(r), while the bus driver tries to reboot the system and the passenger waits to touch off.  I am perhaps seeing as many as one of these bus-wide failures each trip now.  My trip lasts around 20 mins without traffic issues or go card issues.

This morning, the system failed, and stayed failed for all stops until the terminus (around 15 minutes of travel).  All users could not touch off.  Each stop took about an extra minute or two whilst the bus driver spoke to each user, fiddled with the control panel, and the users themselves tried and retried all touch panels.

Is anyone else seeing an increase in failures?  Is it starting to run your bus later?

Perhaps I'm getting the same faulty bus each morning?  It's quite possible.  Or perhaps there's a genuine increase in failures?

As an aside, I notice all the Go Card failures because I was an early adopter, but got out quickly when it regularly cost me 2 hrs in phone calls each week due to roughly 4 failures each 10 trip week.  After I returned the card, I was amazed to see TransInfo begin to refuse legitimate refunds to users, given the high failure rate I experienced.  So given that history, I watch each Go Card user on the bus with interest and pitty.  :-)

Entilza.

[ozbob]

Thanks for the feedback Entilza.  We have been trying to highlight the need to fix the  issues.

Three recent releases;

26 June 2009: SEQ: Commuters are abandoning the go card

28 June 2009: SEQ: Memo to Premier and Minister for Transport ...

28 June 2009: SEQ: Go card auto top up, where are you?

We are just going to have to try harder ...

Regards
Bob

[entilza]

As someone who works in the IT industry, the obvious flaws in the early versions of the bus go card system design appauled me, but that was nothing compared to my disgust at the lack of testing, followed by TransLink's change of heart to blame the consumer for all these faults with a glib "they're not touching off properly" comment.  C'mon!  How hard is it to hold a card against a pad??!!

All that just ensured I gave up on Go Card, early.

But what I am seeing now is something else.  I'm now seeing bus delays, and daily.  I am wondering if others are having the same experience?   Not just occasional hickups.  I'm talking each trip.

Or perhaps its isolated to a few problem busses?

Entilza.

[ButFli]

I take the bus up 10 4 times a day and I have never seen this issue where it takes 2 minutes to fix. The only time I have ever seen a problem like this is when the bus hasn't quite stopped at the designated bus stop and the driver can fix it instantly.

[entilza]

Thanks ButFli.

The driver having to key in a stop due to stopping outside of a stop is understandable.  I'm talking complete system failure.  And you would notice if it happened as often as it does for us.

Do you know which depot your bus comes from?  I believe mine is from out Nugee way.  Perhaps this is an isolated machinery issue?  Or a depot issue?  I'll wait for more members to comment before drawing some hastily conclusion  :-)

Ent.

[STB]

I'm out in Veolia's turf and have had very little problems with failures that I've seen.  For a while (about 6 months) I was travelling on Logan City buses quite frequently and never had a problem, ever with failures.  I have noticed some companies keep on top of the maintenace with Cubic better than other companies. 

I'm not sure why but I do agree that the BT buses, if I had to quantify the number of failures I've seen travelling on compared to other companies, they seem to have a higher rate of failed units per trip.

Might be a simple case that BT/BCC buses get their ticketing equipment used at a much higher rate than the privates, such as Veolia or Logan City for example.  So there's a higher rate of failure....plus BT/BCC aren't a big fan of TransLink, so I would suspect that maintaining the Cubic equipment in the first place wouldn't be on top of their prioity list.