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

[Derwan]

Heaps of young people getting the train to the Boondall Entertainment Centre for a major event.

Were they all wearing black?  It was the Metallica concert. 

Yes - it does appear that they're more interested in collecting parking fees.  This comes as an additional (hidden) cost to the ticket.

Seriously though, how much extra would concert organisers have to charge per ticket?  Maybe $2 or $3?  When concert tickets cost $150+, that's small change.

I haven't actually heard of any BEC events having PT covered in the cost of the ticket.  Perhaps they don't have the option and that it's limited to some of the other major events that would have a significant impact on PT?  (Major events at the BEC usually result in just one additional service.)  Both Suncorp Stadium and the Gabba hold about 4 or 5 times the number of people compared to the BEC.

Also, if they said PT was "free" for ticket-holders, they'd have to ensure they catered for all PT users going home.  We've seen people get stranded at Central in the past because they missed the last train home.

[STB]

Just some observations over the past week of travel.

I've spotted at least 10 or so readers with non-working beeps.  Service I got on today (Rte 140 Browns Plains to City), the front door OBCID (not the PIM - where the tickets are issued), was not reading any cards, simply giving 'Invalid Card' to anyone who tried to touch it.

[somebody]

Service I got on today (Rte 140 Browns Plains to City), the front door OBCID (not the PIM - where the tickets are issued), was not reading any cards, simply giving 'Invalid Card' to anyone who tried to touch it.

That's a pretty annoying message, because it's the reader which is the problem.  I've seen that a few times too.

[STB]

Amazingly, many passengers simply touched it, got the 3 beeps and red lights and continued on thinking that they had touched on.  The driver eventually halfway along the route started telling people to touch on at the PIM only, tapping the PIM constantly as passengers boarded, didn't stop people touching the faulty reader and continuing on to sit down!  The driver then started calling those who touched the faulty reader back to touch on the PIM.

[somebody]

Amazingly, many passengers simply touched it, got the 3 beeps and red lights and continued on thinking that they had touched on.  The driver eventually halfway along the route started telling people to touch on at the PIM only, tapping the PIM constantly as passengers boarded, didn't stop people touching the faulty reader and continuing on to sit down!  The driver then started calling those who touched the faulty reader back to touch on the PIM.

The drivers need to have signs they can put over a malfunctioning reader.

[WTN]

The drivers need to have signs they can put over a malfunctioning reader.

Some drivers already do this (even with printed signs), but signs should be always be mandatory.

[WTN]

I had two free bus trips this week and one free trip last week, courtesy of broken go card readers. All were outbound peak buses (so well seated). Drivers simply told everyone to get on, without signage. Only today's bus had a blank paper towel wrapped around the driver's side reader. Having some signs would make the job easier for drivers and passengers alike.

It's been a while since I've had so many free trips.

[Gazza]

Something I have wondered, but on Ferries, why isn't the fixed fare $2.70 rather than $3....The cost of a 2 zone ticket?

Given ferries only go to zone 2 anyway, doesn't it make sense to just set it at that?

[STB]

Erm...the cost should've been $1.60 between Garden City and Capalaba Bus Stn.  I hope that's not linked to the software update to the DCUs that occured last night.

10-Dec-10 05:52:55 PM    Touch off    Capalaba Bus Station stop B [30183]    -1.35    *
10-Dec-10 05:26:41 PM    Touch on    Garden City N [6508]

[Otto]

Erm...the cost should've been $1.60 between Garden City and Capalaba Bus Stn.  I hope that's not linked to the software update to the DCUs that occured last night.

10-Dec-10 05:52:55 PM    Touch off    Capalaba Bus Station stop B [30183]    -1.35    *
10-Dec-10 05:26:41 PM    Touch on    Garden City N [6508]

Depends on which bus routes you used.

[ozbob]

Ok, can any one explain this ...

Mrs Ozbob headed off to Toowong today for a luncheon.

On touching off at Oxley she noted that the fare was $2.07 for Toowong to Oxley, whereas inbound the fare was $2.43 ...

11-Dec-10 04:32:16 PM    Touch off    Oxley    -2.07    *
11-Dec-10 04:01:40 PM    Touch on    Toowong        
11-Dec-10 11:00:28 AM    Touch off    Toowong    -2.43    *
11-Dec-10 10:35:26 AM    Touch on    Oxley

Bingo!   Bug!!

Footnote:  Correct fare is two zone $2.43

[#Metro]

Wow, this is fast becoming like a quiz. Maybe we should have a game thread called "Fault of the month" 

[ozbob]

Fault of the day .. ?   

Seems might be a few bugs in system with the latest upgrades??

Keep alert, but not alarmed, please report all bugs!

[Otto]

Nice one Bob !!!

BT are yet to have the upgrade performed.. I did know that Veolia have had the upgrade done..

[STB]

Erm...the cost should've been $1.60 between Garden City and Capalaba Bus Stn.  I hope that's not linked to the software update to the DCUs that occured last night.

10-Dec-10 05:52:55 PM    Touch off    Capalaba Bus Station stop B [30183]    -1.35    *
10-Dec-10 05:26:41 PM    Touch on    Garden City N [6508]

Depends on which bus routes you used.

It was route 260.   First time in 12 months that I've been travelling on route 260 from zone 3-5 and get $1.35 as the result.  Every other time during those 12 months it's been the correct $1.60.

[Derwan]

It's applying around a 15% discount (on whatever the price SHOULD be), which happens to be the new off-peak discount from 17 January 2011.

In STB's case, a 15% discount would make it $1.36, so it's not quite right.  A 15% discount (on top of the 10% off-peak discount) for zone 2 rounds to $2.07, which is what Mrs Ozbob was charged.

It'll be interesting to see if there are any other cases.

[ozbob]

I would expect the go card help centre has received feedback on these already, but I have notified TransLink that some errors are being reported just in case.

It may well be related to changes for Jan 17th as Derwan suggests.

[ozbob]

TransLink have indicated that some recent upgrades have lead to some issues, which are now being resolved.  The two instances above are examples of the issue. 

In my travels today, apart from a fixed fare from attempted rear door boarding on a P88 service, no other errors at all.

Route 88 is a pre-paid service that offers rear door boarding for go card users.

http://www.translink.com.au/travel-information/service-updates/bulletin/1291342773

[#Metro]

So maybe once they fix these bugs, they can roll this out on other bus routes. If they can do it for this bus, why not others???

[WTN]

Rear door loading shouldn't be that hard to roll out. Main difficulty is the sheer quantity of readers that need to be reprogrammed.

On Sunday night, after realising I missed my bus home by 5 minutes and having to wait over an hour for the next one (thanks to the thinned out Sunday timetable), I bus-hopped on the busway to test the transfer limit. I managed to get 4 transfers including my final bus home (last service of the day at only 9:23pm).

[WTN]

Deadhead Stop has reared it's head again, resulting in a fixed fare:
   
14-Dec-10 09:25:53 AM    Touch off    Deadhead Stop [BTD00001]    -3.00    *
14-Dec-10 09:02:19 AM    Touch on    Deadhead Stop [BTD00001]

The correct fare should've been $2.43 (2-zone offpeak).

EDIT: I've notified Translink that same day. Let's see when they'll respond.

[Gazza]

Something that has bugged me, but I think the go card reader at Roma street on the shared rail/busway platform should have a sign saying:

Notice: This reader is intended only for use by rail passengers in the rare event a train is directed to this platform.
Bus passengers should use the go card reader onboard their bus as normal.

I know my mum has been caught out by it, but I reckon others would too since its right where you come up the stairs.

[ozbob]

Something that has bugged me, but I think the go card reader at Roma street on the shared rail/busway platform should have a sign saying:

Notice: This reader is intended only for use by rail passengers in the rare event a train is directed to this platform.
Bus passengers should use the go card reader onboard their bus as normal.

I know my mum has been caught out by it, but I reckon others would too since its right where you come up the stairs.

Right on Gazza,  we have mentioned this before but nothing seems to happen about it.  Will try again ..

[Derwan]

Problems with the equipment at Boondall today (on multiple readers).  Several people sought assistance from the station officer this morning, whom I overheard saying that it's going a bit slow.

This afternoon people were having trouble touching off.  It seems like the reading of the card is taking a bit longer than usual.  People get used to how long it takes to read their cards and become efficient at pulling their card away at just the right time.  With the delay, people started removing their card at just the wrong time and were getting the long beep sound.  Others were getting frustrated and waving their cards around to get it to work, which only made it worse.

[ozbob]

Hope not widespread 

I touched on and off at Darra and Richlands this afternoon seemed to be normal.

Perhaps a local issue ..

[Fares_Fair]

My very first use of the Go card today.
Touched on and off this morning ok.
Went to touch off at Palmwoods just after 7pm and it took about 5 goes (no pun intended), I held the card flat aginst the centre of the circle reader before lifting off and kept getting a red light.
Finallly it said "Seek Assistance" but of course there is none at that time of night - another brilliant idea that !

Tried the other reader and again it wouldn't register but kept saying "touch again".
After another 3 or 4 tries it gave a green light.

Other pax also had trouble with the wretched readers. One screen is too moisture laden to even read properly.

I checked the balance when I got home and it had charged the correct fare at least !

There also was a very long queue of pax trying to touch off at landsborough, it's ridiculous queuing to get out of the station at 6:35pm at night.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Golliwog]

Yeah there was something up with the readers at Ferny Grove at about 5pm this afternoon when I came home. It kept telling people to touch again and then to seek assistance. Not sure what was causing it. Mine worked on the second touch after first having the screen tell me to retouch, but the lady before me tried 4 or 5 times before heading back to the center of the station to find a staff memeber.

[Derwan]

I held the card flat aginst the centre of the circle reader before lifting off and kept getting a red light.

The trick is not to lift it off UNTIL it beeps.  It can be a bit hard with the faint beeps!

Seems this issue is not limited to Boondall.

They're running Windows machines.  Perhaps they just need to reboot. 

[ozbob]

Daughter number one reported go card gate failure at Central heading home last evening after work, free trip!

[Gazza]

Oh good, so it's just not me. At Corinda and Milton It was being as slow as Myki.
Unfortunate, because many people will be using GoCard for the first time, and they wouldn't be experience its true speed and efficiency.

[Golliwog]

It appears to be network wide. There was a Translink lady standing next to the readers yesterday afternoon letting everyone know about what happened, but it seemed to working fine by then. I did have a little trouble touching on in the morning though.

http://www.translink.com.au/news-and-updates/go-card-readers-at-train-stations-operating-slowly

Stand-alone go card readers at some train stations that were switched off during the free fares period are currently operating slowly.

TransLink apologises for problems experienced with go card machines. Our technicians are working to fix the problem.

Customers may receive an error messages such as "seek assistance" a few times before working correctly.

Customers incorrectly charged with a fixed fare will be automatically refunded.

[ozbob]

Go card service disruptions

==> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=3032.msg45999#msg45999

[STB]

I had a strange transaction on my trip to Zillmere today.  See below.

06-Feb-11 10:09:37 AM    Touch off    Zillmere    -1.76    *
06-Feb-11 08:20:12 AM    Touch on    Birkdale

Actual price should've been $2.01 which it did correctly charge when I broke my trip up at Central on the return journey, as follows.

06-Feb-11 06:09:25 PM    Touch off    Wellington Pt    -0.44    *
06-Feb-11 05:06:20 PM    Touch on transfer    Central        
06-Feb-11 04:35:05 PM    Touch off    Central    -1.57    *
06-Feb-11 03:52:28 PM    Touch on    Zillmere    

$1.57 + $0.44 = $2.01

[somebody]

If you did the same trip with the great circle bus from Murarrie to Toombul you wouldn't go through zone 1 and the $1.76 concession would have been right.  Probably what it was thinking.

[STB]

If you did the same trip with the great circle bus from Murarrie to Toombul you wouldn't go through zone 1 and the $1.76 concession would have been right.  Probably what it was thinking.

Two problems with that, one, I didn't use the GCL (not operating on a Sunday anyway - nor would I catch it anyway to save a few cents in that particular journey).  And two, I caught the train and travelled through zone 1.

[somebody]

That the system priced it that way is the only plausible explanation I can see.

[STB]

Evidently then, I've spotted a bug in the system.

[somebody]

Evidently then, I've spotted a bug in the system.

Wonder if it was a misdirected feature.  I can't see this happening as a complete accident!

Also raises the question of Corinda-Yeerongpilly train trips.

[Gazza]

^The system probably doesn't know the geography of the network in terms of how you can physically make trips. Rather it just finds the difference in zones number between stations and charges accordingly.
Zilmere is in Zone 3/4 and Birkdale is in Zone 5. I'm guessing the system just charged 3-4-5 for the fare since it thought you were travelling "outwards".

The correct fare on the return trip is explained because the low zone was 1 and the high zone was 5. Hence you got a 5 zone fare.

This does throw up a question though. Why, on the first trip did it charge 3 zones? I should only be two since on a zone boundary it should have picked 4 instead of 5 if indeed it was treating your trip as an outbound one.

Can anyone else have a look at their history to confirm this...Bob, when you have gone to the Gold or Sunshine Coasts, boarding at Darra, but not broken your trip by leaving the paid area, has it done something like 4-16 or similar, instead of 1-16?

[somebody]

Not quite.  In his first trip, zone 2 was also charged for.