Go Card Feedback - tell us of your Go Card experiences!!

[ozbob]

Greetings,


If you would like to make comment or give feedback about your experiences with the Go Card without joining this message board please use our form mailer. 

---> RAIL Back On Track Mailer  - click here!

Regards
Ozbob

[ozbob]

A report received that some Go Card users could not tag on a bus, free rides for all.

[Otto]

That is a common occurance at the moment...

[ozbob]

Thanks Otto.  Further reports that many problems on BT buses with commuters unable to use cards.

Cheers
Ozbob

[ozbob]

Just heard a former pilot participant  on radio 612 ABC Brisbane telling how although he has a Go Card he uses daily tickets as the Go Card is too expensive!!

Similiar feedback all over.

[ozbob]

Photograph R B Dow 30 Jan 2008

Related to the Go Card, the new ticket machines at Central today had no change or notes.  Long queues for tickets.  Translink through CUBIC and Chubb is responsible for maintaining these machines as I understand it.

[ozbob]

Reports of people getting penalties (5$) whilst using card in a normal manner.

Still taking 10 days to get it back. 

[ozbob]

Problems with the GPS in some locations with buses, eg. tunnels.

What happens if you cannot tag on or tag off on a bus? 
Can the driver manually turn the device on?  Anyone know thanks.

[Otto]

Drivers can manually turn on the cid's (customer interface device) using a 'off stop proceedure'. This is normal proceedure at stops where the GPS is unavailable, eg Queen St Bus Station.
However, if the Cubic system is faulty, the driver will not be able to over ride the system. If this is the case, then you won't be able to tag on or off. Drivers have been told in their training to allow free travel to all gocard holders if the cid's are offline (faulty) on that vehicle..

GoCard cid

[ozbob]

Thanks Otto!

Regards
Ozbob

[Peter J]

No problems with the system yet for me.

The only problems have been with BT bus drivers who say you cannot use Smartcards in Brisbane and saying that the machines are not turned on yet despite the readers saying "Please Touch Card".

I stood my ground with one driver who was very rude. After I had successfully tagged on he called me back and said I couldn't use the card on BT buses as the machines are not activated yet. I told him it is turned on and the reader acknowledged my card. He kept going on about it, I told him myself & others have been using them for a few days on BT buses, he still carried on so I told him to ring Bus Control, TRANSLink, Police as I am standing my ground on this.
He rang Bus Control and told them "I have a male trying to use a smartcard." They said "If the readers not working give him a free trip".
When I arrived at my destination I said politely to the driver that he should be more up to date with what is happening with the cards and his customr service was not really good.

[ozbob]

Thanks Peter.

It is interesting that we have had a number of similar reports as well of staff not being sure if the Go Card is actually in use.  Even though it is been rolled out theoretically north of Strathpine people will move all over the network, and where equipment is on it is reasonable to use it IMHO.

I had an unregistered card that I tagged on at Oxley.  Said $0.00 balance, and then I touched it again and it said $5 penalty, next time I tagged it it said seek assistance.   But I am waiting for a registered card to trial.

[ozbob]

It is also interesting to note that many reports of people using cards who cannot tag on being given free travel.  In view of the fare evasion blitz this possibly leading to confusion for some.  Some can travel free, others get fined $150 for trying to reverse ticket 

Failure to tag on is defined in the act as fare evasion (as is early tag off), but the penalty is small  (presently $5 rail, $2.50 bus/ferry, doubled from June 2008).  It is has already been suggested to me that in view of the fine if you don't have a valid paper ticket, get hold of Go card, put it in your wallet and travel.  If you get caught "well I forgot to tag on!"  Sure beats $150 .....

I think this little loophole will have to be tightened up

[Peter J]

Also if you were going for a long trip that covers numerous zones, you tag on but forget to tag off, the penalty you will get charged is actually cheaper than buying a ticket for the same distance.

[ozbob]

Yes good point Peter. 

TL says in its literature that if people are continually not tagging off, and it appears that they are doing that to get cheaper travel their Go Card may be cancelled.  I suppose each case would be considered on its merits.  Some folk may genuinely forget.  School children may forget.  So it may be rather unfair to some, particularly if they cannot easily access paper tickets such as weeklies and so forth.

My guess is the hard core fare evader just won't tag on in the first place and take their chances.
TOs will have portable card readers to check cards in transit.

[Otto]

No problems with the system yet for me.

The only problems have been with BT bus drivers who say you cannot use Smartcards in Brisbane and saying that the machines are not turned on yet despite the readers saying "Please Touch Card".

I stood my ground with one driver who was very rude. After I had successfully tagged on he called me back and said I couldn't use the card on BT buses as the machines are not activated yet. I told him it is turned on and the reader acknowledged my card. He kept going on about it, I told him myself & others have been using them for a few days on BT buses, he still carried on so I told him to ring Bus Control

That was a good idea to ask the driver to do that.. All BT drivers have done the (compulsory) SC training and as far as I'm concerned, there is no excuse for this drivers actions.. It certainly sets a bad example for the rest of the drivers.

By the way, I'm a BT driver myself !

[ozbob]

Letter in Brisbane mX this afternoon (Feb 4) 'Go Card trip-up on cost' from a zone 7 commuter pointing out the increase in his cost of travel for a week, about 9.2% if he uses the Go Card instead of his normal weekly and an extension for a visit to relatives zone 8 to 12.

[ozbob]

Reports of some Go Card users already reverting back to paper ticketing, done money with system issues and incorrect accounting on system with respect to actual use.

[haakon]

I'd love to know what the revert rate is, alas I think suspect only translink/cubic knows and I doubt they will share those stats.

[ozbob]

Yes, we will never know Haakon   


More ongoing correspondence in the mX describing the impacts of the Go Card costs on commuter travel.

[palmboy]

Below is the e-mail I sent the Transport Minister today.
I urge you also to contact the Minister with your Go Card problems - Phil



John Mickel MP
Transport Minister
Qld Govt.
transport@ministerial.qld.gov.au



RE: Inferior and unsatisfactory Go Card.


Dear Minister,

I use a daily off-peak ticket on public transport. I have just bought a Go Card and when I used it I was charged the full peak-time fare for travelling in the off-peak times.

I complained to Translink (TransLink reference number 61500) and was told that Go Card has no reduced off-peak fares and only charges full fares. This is totally unsatisfactory.

If I can travel in off-peak times this takes strain off the already overloaded buses. It is only fair that I am able to continue to buy an off-peak ticket using the Go Card.
I refuse to pay more to use the Go Card, and I have stopped using my Go Card because of this.

The Go Card has been delayed for years supposedly to get it correct for release. Yet it is released without offering off-peak fares. This is not good enough. Off-peak fares must be introduced for the Go Card as a matter of urgency.

Please Minister answer my questions:
-   When will off-peak fares be available for the Go Card?
-   How do I get a full refund on my Go Card?

I have spent $55 on my Go Card (deposit and balance top up). I refuse to have my money tied up in an unsatisfactory product unless you can guarantee that I can obtain off-peak fares by May 2008. Prior to purchasing my Go Card I spoke to Translink staff and read the entire Go Card website, and there was no mention of off-peak fares not being available for Go Card.

As Minister you are responsible for selling me an inferior product. The information available to the public to purchase a Go Card is misleading and deceptive as we were not informed that there were no off-peak fares.

Please arrange for my full $55 refund on my Go Card.

Awaiting your reply

[ozbob]

Welcome palmboy!!

Thanks for sharing your correspondence to the Minister.  It is disappointing the present fare scheme set up on the card.

The more people who write as you have the better!  I agree there does seem to be a bit of smoke and mirrors with the promotional material, there is no direct comparison of Go card costs with other modes such as off peak, daily and weekly ticketing. 

[Tejas]

i got my go card 2 weeks ago. last week i needed to travel and decided to use the card.
i step onto the bus, (veoila transport) tap on. the driver yells at me "get back here - what have you got there?" i showed him the card, whereupon he ripped it out of my hand, tagged me off and said "we do not accept these. you have to buy a ticket" resigned, i paid for a paper ticket. i than called translink and complained.

heres what i wrote to my local MP

I am writing to you in regards to the new public transport smart card ticketing solution ?Go Card?, and it?s drawbacks for the traveling public, which I see are numerous.

The first of which is that it will actually be more expensive for the traveling public whilst reducing costs for Translink. The Go Card, one of which I currently possess, will only process tickets in the form of a 2 hour ticket. If I were to travel from Capalaba to Brisbane City (A journey of 5 zones) I would be charged $2.10 concession for a zone 5 ? 1 2-hour concession. I would than be charged the same on a return journey, making for a total of $4.20 paid for a journey that using a paper ticket costs $4.10.

Melbourne?s new equivalent system (Dubbed ?MyKi?) is due to come online sometime this year, and will feature capped fares. If I make 2 x 2hour journeys, the fare is capped at the daily fare rate, than if I make 5x daily journeys the fare is capped at the weekly rate and so forth until the monthly rate is reached. Surely such a system can be implemented in Queensland, and the omission of such a function leads me to believe the system was hastily rolled out, with the Redcliffe area tests no conducted properly.

The cost savings and benefits for Translink are significant if people switch to Go Card are numerous, and far outweigh the benefits to the traveler. For comparison I have made a list below:
Savings & Benefits to Translink:
?   Reduced risk of robbery and pilfering by having less cash on hand
?   Ability to accurately see which routes and trips are being used
?   Travelers pay before a trip, effectively giving Translink an interest free loan
?   Reduced fuel consumption as passengers board and depart quicker

Where as the benefits to the traveling public are as follows:
?   Faster loading and unloading of busses
?   No fumbling for change to pay for fares
?   If a traveler needs to change journeys they can ? no guesswork about zones and times before you get on the bus or train.

London?s system, often hailed as a model for equivalent systems around the world actually offers a discount (not a penalty as Go Card is doing) of up to 90p (almost $2) for using a smart card and not buying a paper ticket, because of the cost savings of using such a system.

This system penalizes public transport users who are often those who rely on public transport to get around and is a disincentive to public transport when everything needs to be done to push people onto public transport.
I look forward to hearing your reply on this matter

[ozbob]

Welcome Tejas!

Thanks for sharing your comments and correspondence.

You confirm our major concern with Go Card, the fare structure.

I think most people here at RAIL BoT would like to see a very high uptake of the card, that way maximum efficiency gains and savings for our public transport.

It is bewildering that the fare structure is actually dearer than the integrated paper ticketing.

We will continue to lobby for a fair fare outcome.

Best wishes
Ozbob

[bladesplace]

I've been travelling for free this week on buses departing the Casio in the city in the morning counter-peak.
Not only does every reader on every bus I've caught show Out of Service (GPS error probably), but none of the drivers have the faintest idea what to do.

[ozbob]

Some feedback, thanks.

I remain amazed at the poor understanding of consumer behaviour shown in the fare structures of the GoCard. I would have thought you would have taken advice from marketing consultants, from the Travel Smart team in Queensland Transport, and come to the obvious conclusion that public transport users are not going to change from a lower priced product to a higher priced one. I have looked at my own options, comparing the cost of continuing to use paper tickets with the GoCard, and I see only higher expenditures facing me if I chose the GoCard. Combined with the initial unreliability of the new infrastructure, the risk-minimizing choice is also the paper ticket.
                   
I hope that better sense prevails before too long, despite whatever egos are involved in the initial decision to set GoCard prices as high as the paper ticket for the basic single-trip product, and then restrict high use discounts to a very narrowly defined weekly discount that relatively fewcan use, and providing no gains over the paper version of the discount.

[haakon]

Picked up a go card today at Supernews on platform 1 & 2 at Central. I was the girls first sale of a go card. Thankfully she had written instructions on how to sell one so it went smoothly.
It came with a little welcome pack which points out that if the reader doesn't work you travel for free. I'm going to test this out on vieola buses tomorrow. So far I've noticed it's about a 50/50 chance that the system will say touch card when they pull up at the redland bay marina.   

[Otto]

Yesterday ( thursday ), I purchased 2 gocards online. 1 adult and 1 child. All went well and within 30 minutes of submitting my applications, Translink were calling me on the phone. They called to get the name and birthdate of my son as the online application for Children has not been set up correctly to enter the card users name and birthdate. At the end of the call, the TL operator said my cards will be in the mail by days end.

I plan on having my son using the gocard to travel home from school (Victoria Point to Redland Bay) approx 7 days per month so a weekly is out of the question. I will only be using mine on trains or Veolia buses.

i got my go card 2 weeks ago. last week i needed to travel and decided to use the card.
i step onto the bus, (veoila transport) tap on. the driver yells at me "get back here - what have you got there?" i showed him the card, whereupon he ripped it out of my hand, tagged me off and said "we do not accept these. you have to buy a ticket" resigned, i paid for a paper ticket. i than called translink and complained.

Luckily, one of the boses at Veolia is a good mate of mine. If one of the drivers say that to me, I will stand my ground and tell him to call (name with-held) on his radio to verify the procedure he must observe.

Cheers, Otto

[Otto]

So far, so good !
Go Cards arrived in the mail this morning complete with receipt, GoCard user guide, the GoCard, GoCard pocket quick ref guide, GoCard holder and a spare application form..
Today, I will take my sons GoCard to work with me and give it a topup on the bus*.

*note. on bus top ups are not available on BCC buses.. As I work there, I can do this..

[ozbob]

Good stuff Otto!  Have fun ... 

How did you get on Haakon? 

[SockGap]

I've had my Go card for a little over 3 weeks now and have only had a couple of problems using it.  I purchased it at Strathpine station the day after they were released for Pine Rivers but have only used it on the train a couple of times.  I've mainly been using it on Brisbane Transport bus services from zone 5.

I've been unable to Touch On once in the city - I had to wait until the bus moved down the street a bit - then the system activated and I Touched On.  I've been unable to Touch Off once in the city - and with a crowded bus and me at the back door I wasn't going to try and get the driver to manually activate it - so I got off and rang TransLink when I got to work.  At that stage my account hadn't been registered so they basically said not to worry - the $3 "fee" was cheaper than my $4.10 fare.  I also couldn't Touch Off once when getting home - but the driver did the over-ride thing (I guess) and it activated and was all good.

I have had a few surprised looks from a couple of the bus drivers - I've noticed I'm the only one on my bus route using a Go Card - but have never had any of them try to stop me.  I guess as of Monday when they're on sale for everyone there will be a few more people using them.

So far TransLink have been pretty good when I've called them on the phone.  I had trouble registering the card - I filled in the online form but it got lost in the system and when I rang them 3 days later they put all my details in over the phone and it's been fine since.

Topping up the card has been fine for me.  I've done it at the big Fare Machine at Central using EFTPOS - the $20 was on there straight away.  I've also topped up online using credit card - they say up to 48 hours but the amounts have been on the card usually within 24.  I haven't set the auto-top up on my card - I don't want it getting to $0.00 before it tops up.  I'd like to see TransLink have a value each user can set themselves - so you'd have 2 values to pick eg "When the card value is down to $x recharge with $y.  So you could set it to top-up with as little as $20 when it reached $10 - and never have too much money sitting on the card.  I'd also like to see an option to "e-mail this receipt to your e-mail address" similar to the Telstra Online Billing system.  I don't want to have to write down a receipt number and then lose it - it would be easy for them to put the option there to e-mail me the receipt.

A couple of the guys I work with have also purchased cards and have been using them and not had too many troubles.   One guy has had a couple of issues Touching On where it's gone red but charged him anyway.  I'll have to ask him how he swipes his card (whether he moves it around or holds it still and at what angle).  I definitely find holding it still, parallel to the reader and blue side to the reader works best.  See http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=503.0

I'm a little disappointed by the people I've heard who've whinged about the card not giving value for money - it only took a few simple calculations to work out that it was going to be better for me to use it over a weekly ticket.  And certainly more convenient than finding some money every morning for the weeks when I'm not using a weekly.  But I also easily worked out that if in any week I am going to use public transport more than 5 days and/or go on multiple journeys in one day I should buy a weekly for that week.  That doesn't mean I agree with the fare structure - I think it's rubbish and the fares should be capped for the week or, even better, discounted by an overall 20% over paper tickets (see http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=516.0).

[haakon]

Ended up getting a lift from a friend to Bulimba today instead of getting the bus. Took the Citycat into the city, amazingly the outside card readers were actually working. The tag on was under a second.

I must say the Citycats are much nicer than the B.I.T.S. ferries I take everyday.

[ozbob]

Thanks for feedback!   The auto top up is not activated yet,  and I hope too that when it is the user can set a level eg. $10 or whatever so that you always have available funds. I am sure that will be the case.

On the Perth SmartRider card, if you auto top up you receive a 25% discount, manual top up 15%.   Now wouldn't we like to see that!   

Cheers
Ozbob

[haakon]

Well I just registered my card, calling translink over the phone seems to be the most painless way to do it. As soon as I was off the phone I was able to log in and see my balance of $-2.70. I'm curious to see how far I can push that before it rejects me.

It was my understanding if your balance was below $7 you should get an orange light when you tag on. This didn't happen this morning.

[ozbob]

Thats interesting Haakon.  Yes, in the user guide it suggests that:

You can travel using your go card as long as you have a
positive card balance.  page 2

low balance warning
If your balance falls below $7 the card reader will make
three short beeps and the screen will display a ?low
balance? warning.  page 5

Maybe they are giving some lattitude during the ramp up?

[haakon]

Maybe they are giving some lattitude during the ramp up?

I don't think so, I certainly wasn't able to push the card any further into the negative. When I tagged on to a Vieola bus this afternoon. The card reader flashed read and said "insufficient funds" or something like that.

The bus driver had been trained in the system and was able to add $20 credit. I could then tag on, however at the end of the trip the system didn't pickup that we were at a stop. The driver was quick to override the system. Looks like the Vioela bus drivers are now up to speed on the system.

If I have repeated problems with the system picking up the stop at the Redland Bay Marina, I'll have to let cubic/translink know.

[Otto]

Today, I will take my sons GoCard to work with me and give it a topup on the bus*.

*note. on bus top ups are not available on BCC buses.. As I work there, I can do this..

During my day at work, I succesfully topped up both of the GoCards in my bus.. Not yet been able to check details online yet.. I get a message saying " Unable to retrieve go card 0160xxxxxxxxxx04. Please make sure the serial number and password are entered correctly. Please contact TransLink on 13 12 30 if you need further assistance. "
Might have to call TL on monday if it does'nt come good..

[ozbob]

I understand that you can ring to activate for the Go Card 24/7 Otto.  131230
Just work you way through the voice then number controlled menus.

It is necessary to ring to first activate the cards online and obtain a temporary password.
This is confusing as you need to give a password when first registering online.  But this is an internal account password not the password for online access.  You need to ring and activate and get the temporary password.

Once that is done you can then access your online Go Card account and set your own password and so forth.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Ozbob

[Otto]

Thankyou ozbob.. I have done as you said and I am now online. The topups I did on the BT bus I had last night are showing on my online account.. Seems all is working so far !!

[ozbob]

Great stuff!  Glad the post was of  some assistance, I initially got a bit confused myself with that aspect as well.  Expect others will too.

The ability to track the online transactions and history of one's travel and so forth is a major benefit of Go Card for me.  My dear wife is getting a card and will start using it next week.  The online stuff appeals to her too, she likes to check receipts and that 

Registration is worthwhile too as should you lose the card it can be inactivated and credit transferred to your new card.

So this coming Monday is the official launch day I think ( any chance of an invite Translink?  ) .  Might be some ads and folks out and about to assist the masses. 

Don't forget to touch off!