My Go Card trial

[ozbob]

No worries on the Go this week so far on rail for yours truly!   Seems the free rides on buses are not as frequent, but still occurring from reports received.

Go gate reliability at Central and Roma St seems much improved this past week or so.   There will be a need for more go gates at Central particularly.

GO!   

[Emmie]

No worries on the Go this week so far on rail for yours truly!   Seems the free rides on buses are not as frequent, but still occurring from reports received.

I had a freebie on the bus from St Lucia to Toowong on Tuesday - it was about 11am, so most of the passengers were casuals, mainly older women who already had their coins out ready to buy tickets.  They were all quite delighted with the free ride, and the bus got to Toowong much faster than it would have done, if they'd held up the driver buying tickets. 

[WTN]

I had another free bus a while back.  And that was during peak hour, outbound from Cultural Centre.

[dwb]

i've been working on a timeline for Go card (http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2328.msg11159#msg11159) and i came across this old media release from oct 2004 indicating they thought they'd have smart card up and running in under 10months! wow.... too bad it only took 'em 28! (plus lots more to get it stable!)

http://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=37523

ps. no errors for me, i'm back to using paper still :S"

[ozbob]

Another week on the Go!  I have been touching on/off at the various readers at Oxley.  No problems of late.  Also, haven't noticed any X on the gates at Central or Roma St either. 

Forwards!!

[ozbob]

One of the Roma St large gates main entrance had failed yesterday afternoon ...

The rest were intact.

[ozbob]

At Central,  all go gates are GO! 

The odd punter is pushing against the flow,  maybe a special anti-peak flow gate would be handy!

No problems with Go so far this week on rail for me!

I have stopped dreaming about 'go touch failures'  ...  must be a sign of progress   

[WTN]

The odd punter is pushing against the flow,  maybe a special anti-peak flow gate would be handy!

Definitely some changeable directional signage would help.  I once got "trapped" in one of the gates trying to get IN to the station when hordes of people are rushing out! 

[ozbob]

No more gate failures noticed at Central or Roma St last few days, good!

I plan to use my go card to travel to the rally tomorrow.  Bus is running between Darra and Roma St.  I wonder if the BBL and KBL buses have go card equipment?   

[ozbob]

I went into the City using the bus substitution services yesterday.  There was no go card equipment on the BBL Artic I went in on.  Coming home, there was a go card reader on the KBL bus but the driver said it was not on.   Seems to be the way to GO on bus substitution.

[STB]

From what I've heard, the rail replacements are free. So a Go Card isn't needed.

Happy to be corrected though.

[ozbob]

Officially tickets are required.  Just that it is often impractical as the buses neither have the capability to issue tickets and most of the buses don't have Go card equipment.  All too hard, I have previously written for advice on this point from the authorities but I have never received a response.

Yesterday many punters had paper tickets.  A few had Go cards

[STB]

I would wonder how the Go Card equipment would work though.  It's based on GPS and pre-programmed routes, and since rail closures are different almost every single time, the route taken by a rail replacement bus would also change, meaning you'd have to give a customised program upgrade which is only needed for a few days at a time.  Which is a waste IMHO.

So I suppose they could just ensure you have one on you, and then you'd have to make sure you touch off on the platform of your destination station perhaps.

[Fridge]

When rail-replacement buses have been operating for whatever the reason (except for the normal railbuses), no one has ever asked me for a ticket.  Everyone is already delayed, confused and in a hurry, the buses take longer and at busy times everyone is concerned with finding the right bus, any staff there are busy trying to provide directions.  Who has time or can be bothered/stressed to ask to check for tickets?

[ozbob]

So I suppose they could just ensure you have one on you, and then you'd have to make sure you touch off on the platform of your destination station perhaps.

Yes, that has been suggested in the past but a number of issues.  Often you can't access the go card readers and what not on the platforms as platforms closed off.  It is also against the instructions for use of the go card.  You touch on and off as you enter and leave the buses.

The reality is the bus substitution part is not requiring a ticket if you haven't actually got one !  LOL

[ozbob]

Noticed reports on CM blogs of early touches occurring on bus (early touch is where a user touches on on entering bus but then moves down the bus and touches off before their stop on the rear readers).   TTOs may need to go incognito to catch the offenders.

Go is going fine for me on rail.  No gate failures noted at Roma St or Central yesterday.

[ozbob]

A single gate at Roma St this morning with a X both on/off sides with error message barrier forced open  first time seen that one.

[ozbob]

All go gates green Central this afternoon.

[ozbob]

2.30pm Central two X one go gates front and other Creek St gates, tri reader com error

[ozbob]

Been a good week on the GO.  No X noted at Roma St or Central as I have passed through.

Bring on the new fares!   

[ozbob]

For a change, I will be having a rail and a bus GO day tomorrow (all at 50% discounts too as I have already racked up > 10 journeys this week).  There is an excursion organised by ATDB with one of the Mk2 B10m artics soon to retire.  So will be GOing on the 111 between Roma St and Mt Gravatt,  to and from the start/end of the excursion.  Buranda busway station is closed this weekend so a few extra minutes outbound.

Buses are operating between Corinda and Rosewood this weekend too for track closure.

[ozbob]

No problems with GO on the bus on Sunday on the 111.  No beeps though, seems that is now the situation with most of the bus touches.

[ozbob]

Apart from moisture in the go card readers on many platforms making it impossible to read the information on touch, the go journey continues.  The reliability of the gates at Roma St and Central does seem much improved of late, although they are still too slow.  Many reports of people trailing users through the gates.  In some cases I suspect these are paper ticket holders just making their own statement.

One wonders how a supplier for a Government contract gets away with the supply of equipment clearly not fit for purpose?

GO!

[ozbob]

How are you GOing? 

No problems for me this week.  But I have been observing some of the gates closely.  No X noted at either Roma St or Central.  But I have been watching the operation of some of the gates.  At Roma St I noticed a gate or two open when a user touches and then they remain open!  One of the large gates stayed open for about 45 seconds and then slowly started to close.  I mentioned to some staff as I transited through the other day that one of the gates was open. "Thanks, we know ..."

Have a nice GO day!

[ozbob]

Passing through Roma St station this morning there was at one stage 3 gates stuck open.  One of the gates ( the second large one) was 'waving' now and again as well.  By waving I mean opening in one direction for a while, then closing and opening in the other direction.  There was no one touching go cards, just random opening and closing.  I noted a number of punters passing through the open gates without go cards.  There were two TTOs on the paper gate checking the punters that went through that area, but because of the structure between the paper and go card gate array I don't think they can tell that the gates are open!

[ozbob]

Another week on the go!  I will be using the go card on the airtrain later this week, but hey I am going to touch off at Central and then touch on to travel again ... 

Punters still getting confused with the go.  I watched a lady touch on with her card in little hand bag thing today, touched green light then as she was a bit slow taking away the bag red light with 'seek assistance'  message.  She looked around to 'seek assistance'.  Not sure of what to do she touched again eventually which cancelled the original touch.  I then suggested she should touch on again, which she did and registered a successful touch.  It is a bit clumsy for the masses our go system .... 

Sooner or later some poor miss fortunate is going to cop a $200 whammy for a simple error ...

[WTN]

The "seek assistance" error on buses is very obvious - message in capitals, red light, high pitched beeping alarm.  One just tries another reader, and sometimes drivers will say this.  Doesn't look as obvious at train stations.

[ozbob]

Saw my second X with a barrier forced open error message this afternoon on the way home.  Roma St parkland array off side.

[ozbob]

GOing along fine! 

[ozbob]

After a good run on the gates, unfortunately they are back!  Yes sir!  the X

Spotted a few tri comm reader errors this evening at Central ....

[Arnz]

I had a free northbound trip on the 199 this morning due to faulty readers on the Metroliner buses (cant remember which fleet number was it).

[ozbob]

I used my go card on a 333 bus yesterday morning, no problems.  No problems on rail either.  

Noticed the AVVM on platform 3 Oxley seemed to be out of order and technician in attendance around 6.15am this morning.

Another week on the GO!    

[ozbob]

I have noticed the odd gate not closely properly at Central this week.   The design of the myki gates seems better than the slow go gates ...  it will be difficult to enforce a 'closed' station with these constant failures.

No other issues for me on the GO!  How GOes it for you?

[ozbob]

I went for a quick tour of the new busway section yesterday afternoon.

Here is a summary of my go travel.  Can you spot the error?  Correct fares were debited.
I travelled from Central to Park Road, Boggo Road station to UQ Lakes. UQ Lakes to Buranda. Buranda to Roma St.  Roma St to RBH, RBH to Roma St, Roma St to Oxley.

03-Aug-09 04:43:34 PM     Touch off     Oxley          *
03-Aug-09 04:15:45 PM    Touch on transfer    Roma Street        
03-Aug-09 04:14:40 PM    Touch off    Roma St Bus Station Platform 2 [BT010792]        
03-Aug-09 04:07:15 PM    Touch on transfer    'Royal Brisbane Hospital' Stop 9 - IB [BT000540]        
03-Aug-09 03:54:03 PM    Touch off    Royal Brisbane Hospital - 9 - OB [BT000541]        *
03-Aug-09 03:47:02 PM    Touch on    Roma St Bus Station Platform 1 [BT010793]        
03-Aug-09 03:46:09 PM    Touch off    Roma St Bus Station (SEB IB Services) [BT010794]        
03-Aug-09 03:34:05 PM    Touch on transfer    'Buranda' Busway Station [BT010814]        
03-Aug-09 03:24:54 PM    Touch off    'Buranda' Busway Station OB [BT010813]        
03-Aug-09 03:16:48 PM    Touch on transfer    UQ Lakes - Zone B [BT001877]        
03-Aug-09 03:12:31 PM    Touch off    UQ Lakes - Zone C [BT001878]   *
03-Aug-09 03:09:51 PM    Touch on transfer    Green Bridge (Eastern side - To UQ Lakes) [BT018054]        
03-Aug-09 02:59:12 PM    Touch off    Park Road       *
03-Aug-09 02:45:06 PM    Touch on    Central

[Otto]

03-Aug-09 04:43:34 PM     Touch off     Oxley          *
03-Aug-09 04:15:45 PM    Touch on transfer    Roma Street        
03-Aug-09 04:14:40 PM    Touch off    Roma St Bus Station Platform 2 [BT010792]        
03-Aug-09 04:07:15 PM    Touch on transfer    'Royal Brisbane Hospital' Stop 9 - IB [BT000540]        
03-Aug-09 03:54:03 PM    Touch off    Royal Brisbane Hospital - 9 - OB [BT000541]        *
03-Aug-09 03:47:02 PM    Touch on    Roma St Bus Station Platform 1 [BT010793]        
03-Aug-09 03:46:09 PM    Touch off    Roma St Bus Station (SEB IB Services) [BT010794]        
03-Aug-09 03:34:05 PM    Touch on transfer    'Buranda' Busway Station [BT010814]        
03-Aug-09 03:24:54 PM    Touch off    'Buranda' Busway Station OB [BT010813]        
03-Aug-09 03:16:48 PM    Touch on transfer    UQ Lakes - Zone B [BT001877]        
03-Aug-09 03:12:31 PM    Touch off    UQ Lakes - Zone C [BT001878]   *
03-Aug-09 03:09:51 PM    Touch on transfer    Green Bridge (Eastern side - To UQ Lakes) [BT018054]        
03-Aug-09 02:59:12 PM    Touch off    Park Road       *
03-Aug-09 02:45:06 PM    Touch on    Central

..

[ozbob]

Indeed Otto!

When I touched on at Boggo Road bus station it registered as the eastern end of the Green Bridge 

[Derwan]

Could it be that TransLink hasn't updated the station GPS details for the new bus stations?  It's unlike TransLink to be so slack.  (That was sarcasm.)

[ozbob]

The big go card news is in the TransLink Tracker.  Well done TTA on releasing the information but it confirms that the go card usage has stalled and actually gone backwards.  It is clear that a revised fare structure as we have outlined is needed.

Go!

See --> http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2583.0

[ozbob]

Came in on a 174 this morning.  Go card seemed to work fine although no beeps!

[ozbob]

GOing along fine.  Noticed a go gate stuck open yesterday afternoon at Central and folks waving paper tickets at the touch spot and walking through.   Lovely moment, brought a smile to my dial .. 

GO!