Articles: Seniors to get free travel throughout weekend on trains, trams, buses

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Seniors to get free travel throughout weekend on trains, trams, buses

Seniors to get free travel throughout weekend on trains, trams, buses

   * Ashley Gardiner
   * From: Herald Sun
   * August 18, 2010 2:09PM


SENIORS card holders will get free weekend travel on trains, trams and buses from next year.

The free travel deal for over-60s that exists on Sundays will be extended to Saturdays.

Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula said the offer was made possible with the introduction of the seniors myki card.

About 400,000 seniors already registered for the free Sunday Seniors Pass will be mailed a myki card between September and November.

Mr Pakula said about 50,000 people a day were now using myki in Melbourne.

Speaking at Flinders St station, Mr Pakula confirmed a train had been withdrawn from service after a platform overshoot last week.

Metro spokesman Chris Whitefield said an older Comeng train was involved in the incident at Huntingdale station at 6.30pm last Tuesday, 10 August.

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Seniors' free ride on public transport extended

Seniors' free ride on public transport extended
Clay Lucas
August 19, 2010

Seniors card holders who use a myki card will get free weekend travel from January 1 next year.

SENIORS card holders in Victoria will be offered free weekend travel on public transport using myki passes from the start of next year, the Brumby government has announced.

About 400,000 people aged over 60 who already get free Sunday travel on Metcards will soon be sent complimentary myki cards, allowing them to travel free on Saturdays as well.

The cards will arrive in the mail in the lead-up to November's state election, but Public Transport Minister Martin Pakula denied yesterday the new offer - which will cost taxpayers around $4 million each year - was an election bribe.

With 100 days to go until the election on November 27, Mr Pakula said full-fare passengers who did not yet have a myki smartcard would still have to buy theirs for $10, without any credit added to the card.

This is in contrast to Queensland, where travellers were last month offered a free Go card, along with $10 worth of free credit, to celebrate the one millionth card issued since Brisbane's $130 million public transport smartcard system was launched in 2008.

The cost of Victoria's system has blown out to $1.35 billion, amid technical problems and long delays.

Originally supposed to be launched in March 2007, myki was not introduced on Melbourne's trains until January this year and only became valid for trams and buses across the city and metropolitan area last month. It is not yet valid for travel on V/Line regional services.

Myki cards were to have been posted to seniors in January, but were held back after the government realised it had not properly prepared 87,621 of the smartcards for use.

The government spent $2 million to manually add 1 cent in value to each card and attach new letters to the mailout after former transport minister Lynne Kosky quit.

Eligibility for seniors cards in Victoria is limited to permanent residents aged over 60 who are retired, or who work fewer than 35 hours a week. The seniors card can be used to apply for a myki pass, which will be eligible for free weekend travel.

The mailout of the seniors myki cards will start next month and finish in November. The election is on November 27.

Those who do not automatically receive their myki seniors card in the mail can apply for one at any staffed train station, or from the myki website.

The government also announced yesterday that seniors will have the number of free trips given to them each year for use on regional public transport doubled, from two passes to four.

Mr Pakula denied that the extended free travel offers were election bribes. ''These are people who have paid their taxes their whole life, and this is something we can do quite easily given the technology that sits behind myki,'' Mr Pakula said.

Opposition public transport spokesman Terry Mulder welcomed the extra help for seniors, but said it was too little, too late. ''These cards should have been mailed out months ago, and the changes have wasted $2 million,'' he said.

He said every Victorian was paying for the $350 million myki cost blowout announced by Ms Kosky in 2008.

About 50,000 people are now using myki cards across Melbourne daily, up from about 25,000 last month.

A small number using the card have complained about overcharging or problems with the myki website.

Mr Pakula said the website was now working well, and much better than in January after myki first went live.

One myki user, Chris Holmes, said he had been overcharged several times because of unreliable readers at his local South Yarra railway station. This was proving almost impossible to verify using the myki website, because it did not state clearly what fare he had been charged or why.

''Given the problems with the system - I have got default fares travelling to the city, where you can't exit the station without touching off - this seems either highly incompetent or a deliberate attempt to hide errors from consumers,'' Mr Holmes said.