Article: Thousands fall victim to default Go Card fares

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Thousands fall victim to default Go Card fares

Thousands fall victim to default Go Card fares
Marissa Calligeros
September 19, 2011 - 5:50AM

Thousands of Go Card users are inadvertently being charged fixed default fares every weekday.

More than 11,000 Go Card users are inadvertently being charged fixed default fares every weekday, partly due to the sensitivity of smartcard readers and system errors.

But only 170 users are requesting an adjustment to recoup the overpaid charges via Translink.

Go Card users are charged a fixed fare - $5 on buses and $10 on trains - if they do not or cannot "touch off" properly.

Figures obtained by brisbanetimes.com.au show one in 50 Go Card users are being charged a fixed fare across the network each weekday.

One bus commuter, Michael, realised he had been charged the fixed fare on three occasions in the past two months after his bus trip was mysteriously cancelled about 10 seconds after he "touched on".

Trips can be cancelled by tapping a Go Card for a second time on the scanner located at the front of a bus about 10 seconds after the commuter initially touches on.

But when Michael touched off at the end of his trip, he was charged the $5 fixed fare instead of the normal $4.11 fare, because the system believed he was touching on for another trip for which he would not touch off.

"I wasn't aware that my trip was being cancelled until I checked my online records," said Michael, who requested his last name be withheld.

A Translink spokesman said there was no fault with the Go Card or the smartcard readers, rather the wrong charge was the result of human error.

"Users who touch on or touch off incorrectly receive a message displayed on the card reader next time they use their Go Card," he said.

"Customers with registered Go Cards should check their balance and travel history online and can also request an adjustment."

The spokesman said the current fixed fares "strike the right balance" between tackling fare evasion and not disadvantaging honest commuters.

However, Robert Dow of commuter lobby group Rail Back on Track said it was not uncommon for commuters to be charged a fixed fare without realising.

"It's not the first time we have heard that someone has discovered they have been charged fixed fares on multiple occasions when they get around to checking their Go Card history," he said.

"We believe the bulk of the fixed fares at the moment indicate user errors or system errors."

Mr Dow said other smart cards, including building passes, student identification cards and credit cards, could interfere with Go Card readings, particularly on buses, if the user did not take their card out of their wallet or card holder before touching on or off.

Mr Dow suggested Translink adopt a system recently introduced on London's Oyster Card network, which automatically refunds overpaid charges to commuters who occasionally forget to touch off at the end of their journey.

"If a passenger occasionally fails to touch in and out then the new Oyster Card system will aim to automatically calculate their likely journey and charge the appropriate fare," Mr Dow said.

"The system is routinely scanning for anomalous fixed fares among people travelling every day and the software then makes the necessary adjustments.

"We believe this is the way forward for Translink."

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/thousands-fall-victim-to-default-go-card-fares-20110919-1kgey.html

[ozbob]

More on the Oyster system --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6690.0

[Stillwater]

So the humans are to blame, Translink says.  Is there scope to adjust the readers' sensitivity and sequencing?  There would appear to be little incentive for Translink to act on this, as it just sits back and profit from the hapless humans.  What about using those big screens at major stations to run a public education campaign about how to touch on and off.  (It is an issue, as the statistics show.)  

[Fares_Fair]

I was astonished to find that I have incurred 2 incorrect touch-ons since I started using the card on 22 January, 2011.
That is only twice in 8 months, sure.
I was not aware of any issues with the readers at the time.

I could have been fined in a 'ticketies' check of my card on those 2 dates when to my knowledge all worked properly.

I have been told by QR staff that even they do not know when the readers are down !! - unless someone tells them !!

Regards,
Fares-Fair.

[Mr X]

How can they not know when their own readers are down! Pathetic 

[HappyTrainGuy]

Queensland Rail are not responsible for GoCards/readers as they are controlled by another party. The same way Translink knows about service disruptions. They only know if an operator contacts them.

[Fares_Fair]

Queensland Rail are not responsible for GoCards/readers as they are controlled by another party. The same way Translink knows about service disruptions. They only know if an operator contacts them.

That's fine. Understand that HTG.
So if the readers are down and the QR staff on hand do not know about it, what hope is there for the 'customer', who is now always wrong unless he can prover the machine was in error.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[ozbob]

4BC radio news has followed up on this story.  Despite the authorities suggesting it is all the users' fault, I was able to present a more balanced view point and explained the difficulty some users have with unreadable screens due to moisture and glare, the positioning problems of readers on buses particularly, the fact that the beeps cannot always be heard due to failure, background noise and so forth, and the fact that the colour light flashes are too not always readable.  This is apart from general issues with the user interface and less likely system errors.

The current fixed fare rate is around 1:50 actual go card touches, of which only 1:66 is still being adjusted.

Best advice is to present go card separately from other cards, and check go card history regularly.  TfL is obviously a lot more 'customer focused' than the cowboys in this town ...

We will continue to lobby for a decent set of conditions of use for go card, and if necessary might have to use consumer law to get there.

[colinw]

On the Clark's (Logan City) buses that operate my local route, I'd say that less than half the readers have functioning tones.  It is also quite common for one or more of the readers to be completely unworkable, e.g. always come up "red" on all cards, or just plain offline.  I have also noticed problems with the readers failing to activate at stops, and sometimes people just swipe and hop off without bothering to check if it worked.

[Fares_Fair]

4BC radio news has followed up on this story.  Despite the authorities suggesting it is all the users' fault, I was able to present a more balanced view point and explained the difficulty some users have with unreadable screens due to moisture and glare, the positioning problems of readers on buses particularly, the fact that the beeps cannot always be heard due to failure, background noise and so forth, and the fact that the colour light flashes are too not always readable.  This is apart from general issues with the user interface and less likely system errors.

The current fixed fare rate is around 1:50 actual go card touches, of which only 1:66 is still being adjusted.

Best advice is to present go card separately from other cards, and check go card history regularly.  TfL is obviously a lot more 'customer focused' than the cowboys in this town ...

We will continue to lobby for a decent set of conditions of use for go card, and if necessary might have to use consumer law to get there.

My go card is in a separate holder attached (via spring return line) to my back pack.
2 non-touches in 8 months of use isn't a lot, but it's there and I was not aware of them and I always diligently check the screen for a valid response.
I could have been done for fare evasion.
That's a real concern.

I'm all for the go card conditions of use that RAIL - Back on Track are promoting as a sensible approach to the situation.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[ozbob]

More than 11,000 Go Card users are inadvertently being charged fixed default fares every weekday, partly due to the sensitivity of smartcard readers and system errors.

But only 170 users are requesting an adjustment to recoup the overpaid charges via Translink.

World class, no doubt at all.

[HappyTrainGuy]

So if the readers are down and the QR staff on hand do not know about it, what hope is there for the 'customer', who is now always wrong unless he can prover the machine was in error.

If there is an error with the machine ie offline; the next available GoCard reader has to be used. If the station is offline your entitled to a free train trip when boarding or a fare adjustment when getting off. If your about to get booked for fare evasion and you claim that there was a faulty reader, whoever is issuing the ticket can make a phone call and another party will remotely check to see if there are any issues with readers at that station. If a reader is faulty they will turn it off and tell QR who fowards it on to staff at the station to display any signs if needed. If staff report it they shouldn't do anything to it (displaying signs etc) unless advised as it might just be a simple restart to fix the problem. Its still the passengers responsibility to ensure that they have correctly touched on/off and not swipped it with their wallet/purse/briefcase while running past it. Feel free to correct me if i'm wrong but the local machines still record incorrect touch on/off its just that your card can't display it.

According to Translink.
"If all card readers are not working at a station, on board a bus or ferry and despite your attempts, you are unable to touch on, you can travel for free to complete your trip. You should not touch off at the end of your trip. If questioned by an authorised staff member, you will need to advise them of the time and station, or service, where you were unable to touch on or touch off due to the unavailability of any working go card equipment. In the case where other card readers are available for use, you must touch on from a working card reader before travelling."

[ozbob]

See --> http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=6583.0 as well.

[ozbob]

The blog comments on this article are another reflection on the wider public perception of the issues ...

--> Brisbanetimes blog

[Fares_Fair]

Interesting, the response to the system is severely critical by a country mile.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[STB]

Severely?  That's a bit of an over-statement surely?  No system will ever been 100% perfect, athough you could accept 98% of the time for it to work.  Severely to me means that it never or rarely works!

To me I reckon probably at least a 1/4 of the time it is human error, whether by the driver, the passenger or even both.  Today a passenger got a fixed fare and thankfully we had a fantastic driver who picked up on that and it was found out that he had his headphones in  his ears and wasn't paying attention to the touch off.  Unfortunately human error will always be there no matter what you do to simplify the system.  It was known that even under paper tickets, the ticket sellers would every now and then sell you the wrong ticket.

Also unfortunate that most drivers I've come across don't give a toss about the system, or even know how it works properly and that can compound the human error rate.

[Fares_Fair]

Severely?  That's a bit of an over-statement surely?  No system will ever been 100% perfect, athough you could accept 98% of the time for it to work.  Severely to me means that it never or rarely works!

To me I reckon probably at least a 1/4 of the time it is human error, whether by the driver, the passenger or even both.  Today a passenger got a fixed fare and thankfully we had a fantastic driver who picked up on that and it was found out that he had his headphones in  his ears and wasn't paying attention to the touch off.  Unfortunately human error will always be there no matter what you do to simplify the system.  It was known that even under paper tickets, the ticket sellers would every now and then sell you the wrong ticket.

Also unfortunate that most drivers I've come across don't give a toss about the system, or even know how it works properly and that can compound the human error rate.

To put it in context, I was referring to people's overwhelming response in the blog - not the system itself.

Regards,
Fares_Fair.

[Gazza]

You have to be careful though. If you had a bad experience with go card, you'll be the first one to respond to that article.
If you had generally good experiences, then I doubt anybody would be so emotionally charged as to write a comment praising the card.

So that skews it in the direction of negativity.
Just saying.

[Golliwog]

You have to be careful though. If you had a bad experience with go card, you'll be the first one to respond to that article.
If you had generally good experiences, then I doubt anybody would be so emotionally charged as to write a comment praising the card.

So that skews it in the direction of negativity.
Just saying.

True that. Somethign I remember from working in hospitality is people who have a negative experience with a business are far more likely to tell their mates about it than those who have a positive experience, and in those cases its usually because the service was exceptional and went above and beyond what was required.

[Gazza]

Yeah, and a GoCard is just like a bank card for PT isn't it, and its not like I go sprouting off how much I like my Visa.

[longboi]

From my observations it is almost always pax failing to realise they have gotten a red light when touching on/off. When in uniform I try my best to help these pax out and usually all it requires is for them to take the card out of their wallet and touching it to the reader.

[Golliwog]

From my observations it is almost always pax failing to realise they have gotten a red light when touching on/off. When in uniform I try my best to help these pax out and usually all it requires is for them to take the card out of their wallet and touching it to the reader.

Exactly. I keep my card in my wallet, but when I first put it in there, I made sure it was reading right every time. I ended up having to shuffle cards around a little, but now it works fine. It just requires people to pay attention.

[SurfRail]

I'm one of the lucky ones - never have issues, even with the card in my wallet. 

In fact, Perth's Smartrider seems to only work for me if I take it out of the wallet and lay it flat on a fare gate reader.

[colinw]

I have never had a penalty fare, but that is only because I am vigilant.  I have to re-tag due to a red light at least once every couple of weeks. If I just swiped and kept moving I'd be copping fixed fares on a regular basis.

For that reason, the Go Card should also be known as the "Stop and Stare Card" - because if you don't you're going to get shafted.

[Mozz]

and it's even difficult to stop and stare and listen when the screen is unreadable the the beeps are inaudible ..... but apparently readers are reported as functioning 99.x % of the time.....

[Cam]

I contacted Translink this morning to report 2 fixed fares due to the reader at Wacol not working yesterday afternoon. The last time I contacted Translink regarding a fixed fare about a month ago, I was advised that the credit would take up to 2 weeks to be applied to my account. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised when I was told that the credit would be applied within 24 hours. 

[mufreight]

I contacted Translink this morning to report 2 fixed fares due to the reader at Wacol not working yesterday afternoon. The last time I contacted Translink regarding a fixed fare about a month ago, I was advised that the credit would take up to 2 weeks to be applied to my account. This morning, I was pleasantly surprised when I was told that the credit would be applied within 24 hours. 

Perhaps the closing proximity to an election could have something to do with an improved response.
I recently had a bus where I was able to touch on but unable to touch off when I got off the bus then touched on for the rail leg of the trip, got pinged for no touch off then a full fare instead of the transfer for the continuation, notified Transtink they took almost three weeks to do the credit.

[dwb]

I'd put money on a lot of those fixed fares being people deliberately copping the fixed far so as to avoid their actual fare. That's why they're gating more and more stations.