The No Go Card

[mufreight]

Went to Ipswich Railway Station to purchase a Go Card.
Sorry we do not sell Go Cards here but we can give you the forms and you can fill them out and pay for the card through Bpay at your Post Office.

Contacted Translink who said that you can download the forms and post them in or you can go to either Rosewood or Booval stations and purchase a card there.

Now Rosewood and Booval combined would have possibly less than half the passanger numbers of Ipswich so why make the cards avaliable at those stations and not at a major station.

Is the intention to make obtaining a card as difficuly as possible to deter people from using the card? One wonders, combined with this shortsided stupidity by Translink, a fare structure that borders on extortion, a lack of accountability, no honest communication with those forced to utilise their disfunctional system does Translink realy want people to use the card,

Translink tried to pass the buck to QR saying that it was QR's responsibility to train ticketing staff and that the staff at Ipswich had not been trained yet.

As the Go Card is a Translink operated and controlled system it would have been reasonable for Translink to ensure that the staff were trained prior to the rollout, still this is the SMART ? STATE

How many other major stations are in the same position? and which monkey is responsible for this oversight[.

Cheers.

More on how Translink bends facts 20th March 2008
Translink's latest version. Quote from Queensland Times this morning.
Ipswich residents have written to the QT saying they couldn't get on a bus without a Go Card, didn't know where to purchase the cards and more recently not being able to purchase the Go Card from the Ipswich Railway Station.

A Queensland Transport spokesperson yesterday told the QT passengers should be able to still purchase a cash paper ticket onall Ipswich services.

(But) passengers cannot purchase Go Cards from Ipswich Station at the moment, the spokesman said.

Translink's plans to install the equipment that would allow Go Cards to be sold at Ipswich Station have been put on hold due to the planned refurbishment of the station.


The third version of their excuse, one wonders if it is any more credible than the two previous outright lies given previously by Translink in response to inquiries made of that entity.

Surely in the interests of public relations it would have been much simpler and better to have told the truth from the start, if indeed this latest version is indeed factual or will it also change again to suit the needs of expediency.

It would have been preferable by far in the first place to have instructed the station staff at Ipswich Station to advise people of a local retail outlet where they could purchase cards, Oops, there is no Go Card retailer in the city of Ipswich , or they could have as an intrim measure, installed the equipment on a temporary basis, as after all all of the wireing is avaliable at the station at present as is proven by the card readers and the barriers and simply put the equipment on site and connect it up, but as we all know that for Translink the concepts of being factual when dealing with the public and good customer relations are beyond the scope of the paramiters of their job description.


So much for Honest, Open and Accountable Government.

Cheers.

[ozbob]

All retailers here --> http://timetables.translink.com.au/db/agents.php

It is amazing that a major station such as Ipswich does not have Go Card directly available.

It is little wonder that folks are becoming somewhat disillusioned with this roll out. This is NOT a QR issue, it is Translink issue.