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

[HappyTrainGuy]

Underneath storage or if space available onboard (IIRC BBL allow bikes onboard/Thompsons etc will put them in storage).

[ozbob]

I have to agree. This touch on/off business just makes things really messy, and the delays from RailBuses really stack up - it is just best practice to make the thing free. There were a whole stack of them on Roma Street P1, always coming and going.

I opt not to bother with rail buses - too much messing around, potential delays, missed connections and then there's the touching on/off confusion. I just find it much easier to drive - thankfully most of my travel on the network is by bus.

Indeed James.  Until they go card equip the rail buses the bus legs should simply be free.  It is too confusing for most of the punters and just sets them up theorectically for  possible warnings and fines as well.  TransLink have commented to me (privately) that it should be free until they go enable the buses.   Crikey, why does everything have to be so damn mediocre in SEQ??

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

26th August 2013

Commonsense needed with go cards and bus rail replacement services

Greetings,

My dear wife travelled by rail/bus to the CBD yesterday from Goodna.  There was a track closure over the weekend between Corinda and Roma St (as well as some other closures).

It is very confusing for most go card users as to what they are required to do.

For example, this is the instructions I gave to my wife:

======================

1.  Touch on at Goodna rail station as per normal.

2.  When you arrive at Corinda  DO NOT TOUCH OFF when leaving the station.

3.  Seek out the express rail bus to the city if you can.

4.  When you arrive at Roma St  go to the fare gates and tell the station staff that you are already touched on.  Don't touch the fare gates on the entry side or otherwise you will get a fixed fare.

5.  When you get to Central, touch off as you normally do.

Coming home.

1.  Touch on at Central normally.  When you get to Roma St,  DO NOT TOUCH OFF, go through the gate with the station staff tell them you are going on the bus to Corinda and you are touched on.

2.  Bus might leave from bus platform one, or as directed.

3.  When you get to Corinda and enter the rail station DO NOT TOUCH ON (as you are already touched on).

4.  When you get to Goodna touch off normally.

===================

Most people do not understand this complexity.  Yesterday my wife noted very few people using go cards in the required manner on the trains and substitute buses today.  And who can really blame them?

Inbound she reckons she was the only one in around 40 or so that did not touch off on leaving Corinda rail  to board the buses ...

The problem is that the rail replacement buses are not enabled with active go card equipment.

Until they go card equip the rail buses the bus legs should simply be free.  It is too confusing for most of the punters and just sets them up theoretically for  possible warnings and fines as well.  To change the normal procedures for go card is madness.  People expect to touch on when boarding a bus and touch off when leaving it.  If the bus is not go card enabled then that leg should be free.

Customer focus rhetoric is nonsense.  How about doing the right thing for a change?

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

Published Queensland Times 29th August 2013 page 9

Go Cards make simple travel complex muddle

[ozbob]

Crikey, the Mrs was very upset when I picked her up from Goodna rail this afternoon.

There is a track closure Corinda - Rosewood this weekend.  Mrs Ozbob likes to do the correct thing.  When she left the train at Corinda she correctly did not touch off, boarded the bus to Goodna.  At Goodna, she headed up the stairs to go to the platform to touch off (only one of course) however the station stairs down to the platform had a barrier of sorts.  So she went back down the stairs etc. and walked up to the subway, only to find that was blocked off too.  So she decided to go back up the stairs and bypassed the barrier, which had collapsed and eventually touched off.  What a circus.  If platform access is blocked pax should be notified with signs prior to climbing up to go to the platform.  Farce as usual.  She was the only trying to do the right thing.  Take a photograph was the cry from the Mrs ... Ok honey will do .. herewith .. 









Photographs R Dow 13th October 2013

[STB]

Should just legislate it to make it free for rail replacement.  It is something outside the normal travel, so I think free travel during planned closures is fair enough.

[#Metro]

Should just legislate it to make it free for rail replacement.  It is something outside the normal travel, so I think free travel during planned closures is fair enough.

It should be free. Melbourne has it free. I remember having to take a rail bus due to an issue at a level crossing in Melbourne when I was down there. The bus HAD Myki Readers but they disabled them for all of the transfer buses and did not charge anything for that at all.

[Set in train]

Should just legislate it to make it free for rail replacement.  It is something outside the normal travel, so I think free travel during planned closures is fair enough.

Second that, it is not the same quality of service, merely a lifeline to provide some service, so make it free.

[mark_from_briz]

The infrastructure to support the go cards is poor
Suburban readers are often not readable due to fogging, glare,scratching or fading due to being out in the weather. the beeps are often inaudible.
the card readers themselves are quite variable in their sensitivity/reliability.
My card is in the same place in  my wallet all the time.  90% its read fine, then  randomly i get invalid card errors even though i touched on successfully at the beginning of the journey.

Inadequate number of gates at central (although this is being addressed now)
the onus is put on commuters to prove a failed touch and you need to regularly check for "silent" fines as there is no email or sms alert that you didn't touch off.

Why cant the software developers put a simple check in to measure the pattern of usage to avoid fining for  unintentional touch offs ??
it would be a simple programing exercise to determine if a user who didn't touch off was a regular commuter by looking at the database history.
failed touch offs below a certain threshold  (say 2 every 6 months) would simply be ignored.
Regular commuters who do the same journey day in day out over a number of months/years are not intentionally trying to rip the system off and should not be penalised for flawed infrastructure.
we already pay too much for public transport, copping fines for design failures is adding insult to injury

cheers

[ozbob]

Exactly Mark.  Have you seen this?  --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6690.0

We have been pushing for a while now for these sort of improvements.   Hopeless farce at times ...   

[techblitz]

Surprise surprise

Busiest 220 pf the day crush to front after gabba. Gocard reader not working. Everyone gets free trips.
Talk about perfect timng

Also noticing long queues at the valley due to only 1 gocard machine. This is a fairly busy station so counter staff are also kept very busy.

[SurfRail]

Surprise surprise

Busiest 220 pf the day crush to front after gabba. Gocard reader not working. Everyone gets free trips.
Talk about perfect timng

Also noticing long queues at the valley due to only 1 gocard machine. This is a fairly busy station so counter staff are also kept very busy.

There are several stations I can think of where there should be 2 minimum - the Valley is one, most Gold Coast stations as well.

And hurry up with the go-card dispensing upgrades.  Will be needed if we ever want to scrap paper.

[STB]

Surprise surprise

Busiest 220 pf the day crush to front after gabba. Gocard reader not working. Everyone gets free trips.
Talk about perfect timng

Also noticing long queues at the valley due to only 1 gocard machine. This is a fairly busy station so counter staff are also kept very busy.

There are several stations I can think of where there should be 2 minimum - the Valley is one, most Gold Coast stations as well.

And hurry up with the go-card dispensing upgrades.  Will be needed if we ever want to scrap paper.

There are upgrades happening...?

[SurfRail]

No but there should be.  The machines would only need to be brought up to the same spec as the busway ones.  Same shell, update the software and add a go card hopper.  Easy.

[Golliwog]

There are several stations I can think of where there should be 2 minimum - the Valley is one, most Gold Coast stations as well.

Agree. And my preference would be to put them in side by side like the wall at Central. Makes it easier from a customer perspective to get the next free one. There are 2 go card top up machines at Ferny Grove station, but they've put them either side of a concrete column so if you line up behind one, you can't see if someones still using the other machine or if there's a line for it either. Not a huge deal, but if you're going to be adding new infrastructure you should do it right.

[Set in train]

Good points Golliwog and SurfRail, design is important and there needs to be more of them on the Gold Coast. There seems to be no forward planning to go paperless.

They should be on every busway platform, not down on the concourse or only on the inbound platform.

[Set in train]

Amazing turn of events on the 174 through the South Bank busway station on Monday. At 12:05pm, the outbound bus had a man board the bus who is apparently a habitual offender of not having enough money on his Go Card. He expects to be let on for free.

The driver refused to move the bus until this person paid or left the bus. Wanted $2.60.

Eventually a passenger paid the driver the $2.60 and the bus continued on its journey with the fare evader still on the bus. No, he didn't personally have the ticket handed to him.

I disembarked at the next stop and phoned busway operations to track this offender down.

[ozbob]

I was sent this via twitter.

Serial fixed fares.  Appears to me faulty equipment or possibly card.  Advised sender to contact TransLink for a refund.

Anyone else had issues at FG?

[techblitz]

I was sent this via twitter.

Serial fixed fares.  Appears to me faulty equipment or possibly card.  Advised sender to contact TransLink for a refund.

Anyone else had issues at FG?

Just left FG station and did some tag on/offs on 2 scanners. Didnt have any issues.

[ozbob]

Thanks, might be the go card itself ..

[Golliwog]

I was sent this via twitter.

Serial fixed fares.  Appears to me faulty equipment or possibly card.  Advised sender to contact TransLink for a refund.

Anyone else had issues at FG?

Same as techblitz from me, no issues. Did have an issue with one or two of the gates on P1-2 down to the tunnel under Central a month ago where multiple times over a few weeks the gate would open and let me out but not register a touch off so going home I'd get the fixed fare there.

[ozbob]

Thanks.  Yes, I think it might be a dodgy go card ..

[Fares_Fair]

Met a Victorian 'working' tourist on the train this week.
He had a go card and asked me where on the train does he swipe on.

I explained that he needed to swipe on at the go card readers located near the entrance to the platforms, then pointed them out to him as we passed the next station.

He said that no-one had told him how to use the go card and there was no information on how it is to be used at the railway station (Landsborough, in this case).
He has a very good point.

He said that virtually everywhere else in the world the card readers are located on the vehicle, be it tram or train or whatever.

Food for thought ...

[ozbob]

I think most trains Oz and globally have platform readers of various types, gates stand alone readers.

Adelaide is the only system in Oz that has onboard readers on rail AFAIAA.

Trams is a mixed bag, mainly on board. GC light rail will have platform readers as more like a rail network than a tram network.

Buses are invariably on board.

[longboi]

Met a Victorian 'working' tourist on the train this week.
He had a go card and asked me where on the train does he swipe on.

I explained that he needed to swipe on at the go card readers located near the entrance to the platforms, then pointed them out to him as we passed the next station.

He said that no-one had told him how to use the go card and there was no information on how it is to be used at the railway station (Landsborough, in this case).
He has a very good point.

He said that virtually everywhere else in the world the card readers are located on the vehicle, be it tram or train or whatever.

Food for thought ...

Assign everybody a personal babysitter?

I wonder what he does when he's back home in Melbourne:


Better hope he doesn't visit Perth:


Or Sydney:

[SurfRail]

The only way he would legitimately have an excuse is if he was from Adelaide and not well travelled - validation on board every vehicle, including trains.

[Fares_Fair]

He claimed to be well travelled, including overseas.

His point about not being shown or told how to use a go card is not new (meaning signs at the stations explaining how it is used).
I have encountered it before from people unfamiliar with the system - mostly older folk.

[James]

Better signage of go card readers I would say would have to be the big one. For those not familiar with the stations, finding a go card reader may be a bit difficult, especially if there are multiple exits.

But if he's well travelled, that really shouldn't happen. Only had one fixed fare on rail, and that was forgetting to touch off at Park Road P1 (there needs to be a go card reader beside the stairs!).

[STB]

Better signage of go card readers I would say would have to be the big one. For those not familiar with the stations, finding a go card reader may be a bit difficult, especially if there are multiple exits.

But if he's well travelled, that really shouldn't happen. Only had one fixed fare on rail, and that was forgetting to touch off at Park Road P1 (there needs to be a go card reader beside the stairs!).

There is one next to the stairs on P1, I use it regularly.

[techblitz]

had a gocard reader breaking down mid-travel today on the 124.
Busdriver did his best to get it started again but to no avail.
The reader just literally disconnected itself and couldn't re-establish connection.

Which brings me to the next point. The fixed fare as a result.
Bus drivers have been told to tell passengers to ring translink if they are concerned about the fixed fare. Buuuuut...if the passenger rings translink immediately...they are told to call back in 24-48 hours to give it time to show up on their computers.

Should translink not state this in their fixed fare section on the website etc??

What if I can't touch off because of a system issue?

If you have been charged a fixed fare because of a system issue you can apply to have your go card balance adjusted within 8 weeks from the date of error.
Report an incorrect fare
You can report an incorrect fare and have your go card balance adjusted if you've been over charged and apply to have your card balance adjusted within 8 weeks of from the date of error. You can report an incorrect fare:

[ozbob]

^ good point Techblitz, will follow up.  Thanks.

[techblitz]

 

probably just as important that the bus drivers relay that 24-48h wait to affected passengers...

[techblitz]

an interesting issue yesterday

touched off correctly Saturday evening 8pm
no travel sunday
Monday 4pmish GCL reader out of service so could not tag on..
driver manages to get it working @ banoon...tells everyone to tag on....
I tag on and boom...5 dollar charge (which next day shows up as an `unknown` on the gocard history(online)

translink put it down to either 2 issues.
I held the card against the reader for too long (catch is I only heard 1 beep)

or

some sort of reset/glitch happened when the reader rebooted and came back online @ banoon....

[techblitz]

Surprise surprise

Busiest 220 pf the day crush to front after gabba. Gocard reader not working. Everyone gets free trips.
Talk about perfect timng

Also noticing long queues at the valley due to only 1 gocard machine. This is a fairly busy station so counter staff are also kept very busy.

You will not believe this....its happened again!
Same route...same 4.10 ex qsbs..full with standees...
And you guessed it....readers not working so free trips!

[ozbob]

Some feedback received, thanks.  This has been raised before, and people who have followed up with TransLink have eventually been able to get the correct adjustments.  It does however reflect badly yet again on the system that until one forces a review the adjustments are not made ...  we will again follow up.

As a pensioner, I am
only supposed to have to pay for the first 2 trips each day.  However, if my
touch off doesn't work at the end of the first trip due to equipment
malfunction, not only am I charged $5.00, but I am also charged for the
second and third trips that I make.  This has happened to me twice.

When I apply to have the $5.00 fine reversed, I get the correct refund on
the first trip, but I have not been refunded the cost of the third trip.  I
have even made it clear that I am a pensioner and I don't have to pay for
third or subsequent trips on the same day.  However this did not stop them
from ripping me off a second time.

As far as I'm concerned, my money is being stolen by the government.   What
can we do about this?

[ozbob]

Sent to all outlets:

30th December 2013

Greetings,

Some feedback received, thanks.  This has been raised before, and people who have followed up with TransLink have eventually been able to get the correct adjustments.  It does however reflect badly yet again on the system that until one forces a review the adjustments are not made ...  we will again follow up.

   

As a pensioner, I am only supposed to have to pay for the first 2 trips each day.  However, if my
    touch off doesn't work at the end of the first trip due to equipment
    malfunction, not only am I charged $5.00, but I am also charged for the
    second and third trips that I make.  This has happened to me twice.

    When I apply to have the $5.00 fine reversed, I get the correct refund on
    the first trip, but I have not been refunded the cost of the third trip.  I
    have even made it clear that I am a pensioner and I don't have to pay for
    third or subsequent trips on the same day.  However this did not stop them
    from ripping me off a second time.

    As far as I'm concerned, my money is being stolen by the government.   What
    can we do about this?

How is this being customer focussed?  Further evidence of the systemic fare failure embedded in public transport in SEQ.

Why is everything so hard in SEQ, other jurisdictions seem to be able to deliver ...

Best wishes
Robert

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org
RAIL Back On Track http://backontrack.org

[ozbob]

Paris, Zone 1, basically a large part of Paris and all the Metro area. $2.60 for adult single paper ticket

^ 

[Golliwog]

I've had a similar issue with fixed fares impacting on my adult go card and the 9-free trips deal. It's irritating to have to call up twice, or to have to wait till the next week and hope you remember to call up and push for both refunds. While I can understand why the fixed fare causes the issue in the first place, surely they could make a script that runs through and checks for fixed fares that have been corrected (I think that may be the issue as currently you just get the fixed fare then later the refund, but there's nothing connecting the two) and then re-counting the number of trips that have been made and paid for against the number that should have been and then automatically applying any relevant refunds.

[PollyWouldLikeASeat]

Question,

Monday night I was unable to tag off at my station, the storm took out all the go-card readers.  When I tagged on next day and got the fine, I rang translink to get it adjusted, as I didn't want it to mess with my my free after 9 thing.  The guy at translink would not make the adjustment, because the fine was less than fare, i said that i would like it adjusted, he said it was policy not to adjust it if the fine was less than the fare and that was that.

And after reading some of the other comments in this thread, I get the impression that I should have been able to get my fine adjusted?

[Fares_Fair]

Question,

Monday night I was unable to tag off at my station, the storm took out all the go-card readers.  When I tagged on next day and got the fine, I rang translink to get it adjusted, as I didn't want it to mess with my my free after 9 thing.  The guy at translink would not make the adjustment, because the fine was less than fare, i said that i would like it adjusted, he said it was policy not to adjust it if the fine was less than the fare and that was that.

And after reading some of the other comments in this thread, I get the impression that I should have been able to get my fine adjusted?

Yes, they did not correct mine when I have asked.
I prefer to pay the full fare and not ever be seen as a fare evader.
It should be allowed to be corrected IMHO.