Query re go card transactions

[Mozz]

Last night I got on a citycat travelling from Southbank to Toowong, the outside card reader on the left (portside) was hooded up so I went inside to touch on, one of the staff suggested there were some issues with one of the inside readers and directed me to use the inside right side one (starboard) which seemed to work ok. Then arriving at Toowong I lined up to get off and saw a procession of people try to use the outside right side reader (starboard) and it consistently gave people and amber light.

I don't know what an amber light means but it didn't appear to be working and I didn't want to run back inside against the line up of people to touch off on the only reader I was pretty sure was working.

Thus I alighted and walked to Toowoong station and was in a bit of a conundrum (no staff around to ask questions of) so do I touch off at toowong and maybe incur a penalty when I touch off again at Oxley or do I touch off and then wait and then touch on and then off at Oxley - I was confused. So I gave up, didn't touch on or off banking on the fact I could just touch off at Oxley and finish my journey.

Thus I did touch off at Oxley and bingo got charged $3.00 for the journey instead of the $2.72 for a 1-3 Zone travel.

Strange that it calculated a $3 fare instead of $2.72.

Very annoying that readers don't work properly on citycats.

Staff on citycats don't appear to understand the gocard process.

Train stations without staff are useless if you need advice on travelling with the gocard system.

Comments anyone?

[ozbob]

An amber light is the signal for a concession touch, but it seems like it was faulty as not all the punters would have concession cards.

Your touch at Oxley has been interpreted as a fail to touch off on the Citycat leg Mozz, hence the $3 fixed fare.

You could contact go card HQ, and plead a case. But it depends on how much spare time you have today, it might take a while. 

The equipment on the Citycats is the same as the buses.  It was not designed for a marine environment.  It is little wonder the readers out in the weather are not working.  We have raised this point many times in the past, but the Minister and TransLink are in a public denial about these sort of issues.  Hit counters on the Go card website are much more interesting to them .... 

[ozbob]

Staff on citycats don't appear to understand the gocard process.

Does anyone?

[ButFli]

An amber light is the signal for a concession touch, but it seems like it was faulty as not all the punters would have concession cards.

If you've ever caught a CityCat heading upstream from the city at night you would know that the majority of passengers are students. It is quite possible that "all" the passengers with Go Cards alighting at Toowong with Mozz were concession card holders.

I agree completely with your opinions relating to the budgetness of the Go Card fit out on CityCats. I used a Go Card on a CityCat for the first time earlier this week and I couldn't even figure out where the reader was to touch off. The readers that are there look very flimsy. Instead of mounting the bus style readers on CityCats they should have installed the train station style readers on the wharfs. There are only so many wharfs so I would have thought it would have worked out cheaper.

[K_Nikora]

Instead of mounting the bus style readers on CityCats they should have installed the train station style readers on the wharfs. There are only so many wharfs so I would have thought it would have worked out cheaper.

You make a good point ButFli, however QR stations can be locked at night to minimise vandalism to equipment. As the wharfs (wharves? =S lol) don't have the same kind of security, there'd probably be a higher level of damage to the SACIDs, which in the end would mean faulty equipment and difficulty touching on/off all the same.

Gotta say, I love going on the train, have yet to have a problem! (Besides getting stuck behind confused paper ticket holders as they walk into the closed gates at Roma st, hehe).

[GOody]

I think you've also got a $5 penalty (rail) that you'll get when you next tag on, as (if I've read things correctly), you've failed to tag off from the Citycat, then tagged onto the train ($2 penalty for failure to tag off Citycat), but now havn't tagged off the train journey. So next time you tag on $5 will be debited.

You should have tagged on at Toowong, (would get the $2 penalty there, and a non-continued journey), then tagged off again at Oxley.

[dwb]

Every leg of your journey needs to be in pairs - touch on then touch off.

If you do not touch off the computer assumes a touch off where you touch on the following leg/journey and charges you a penalty (penalty is mode specific). If you can't touch off one leg you should still touch on and off the second leg, and then attempt to get a fare adjustment later. Most times it won't be worth the hassle.  The frequency at which it happens should be low enough for you to wear it just as if you'd bought the wrong ticket, ie single when you wanted daily. If you are routinely having issues, or routinely getting ferries I would suggest using weekly/monthly paper tickets until the implementation is more highly resolved.

Keep in mind that a penalty resets the number of journeys that contribute to receiving a discount. I'm not sure what the TL policy is in regards to this where you can effectively prove it wasn't your fault, however I wouldn't hold my breath.

[bnetrans]

Keep in mind that a penalty resets the number of journeys that contribute to receiving a discount.

I wasn't aware of that.

Emmie's experience here seems to show that the Journey is also re-started, thereby forfeiting any transfer benefit.
http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?PHPSESSID=2e2ee191b5494846ddd1fe6933b8fba8&topic=1901.msg9017#msg9017


There should be some room for improvement in the robustness (and hence, user-friendliness) of the system, for example when a touch-off doesn't happen (due to equipment failure or user error) but there is sufficient information available to otherwise correctly calculate the fare.

For example, in Perth:

An exception to the default fare rule will apply if the next tag on occurs within 60 minutes of the previous tag on.

In this case, the next tag on location will instead be processed as the incomplete tag off location. This ensures that you are charged the relevant fare rather than the penalty fare, in the event of unintentional failure to tag off whilst transferring from one service to another.

This rule only applies when the tag on occured on board a bus.

http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/TicketsandFares/SmartRider/SmartRiderFaresandRules/tabid/103/Default.aspx


Making full use of the available information, and then only charging a penalty as the option of last resort would be appropriate for a "smart" system.

[Derwan]

Keep in mind that a penalty resets the number of journeys that contribute to receiving a discount.

I think you'll find that the journey-count isn't reset - but the trip made that eventuated in the penalty isn't actually counted.

For example, you travel to and from work 5 days a week.  You'd normally be entitled to the 50% discount on the weekend.  If you fail to touch off once during the 5 days, the first trip on the weekend would be charged at the full Go Card rate.

I like Perth's idea - and don't see why it couldn't be implemented here.

[ozbob]

I know from previous feedback that if you had a touch error say on journey nine, the counter restarted.  Not sure if that has been fixed or is still the case.  Anyone able to confirm?

Thanks.
Bob

[Derwan]

There was feedback received some time ago that the counter was reset:  http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=406.0

However, my experience was that the journey didn't count:  http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=449.msg1926#msg1926