Melbourne vs Brisbane - observations

[STB]

Hi all,

I've been in Melbourne for the past few days for several reasons.  While I have been here I've had the opportunity to jump on board the trams, trains, and more frequently this time the buses, I also got my first Myki.

I'll go in more detail in a few days time once I'm back in Brisbane, but in a nutshell:

- most tram (superstops) and train stations are both level between platform and train

- both trams and trains get VERY busy, and far more crowded than what I've seen in Brisbane - although Melbourne does have slightly bigger trains due to the broad gauge.

- Myki touch ons and touch offs are quite slow, generally take about 2-3 seconds for it to register but you can touch on or touch off at any point in the journey from what I've noticed which is what tram users tend to do if they can't touch on straightaway.  The daily capping works brilliantly, don't know about Myki Pass though as I haven't used it.

- Trams and trains generally do have a bit of a hard time to maintain on time running during peak hours, at least when I was here.  At one point, we lost an entire line (all trains on that line were cancelled) and a platform from one broken down train just past North Melbourne.  Trains terminated at that platform to try and prevent congestion in the City Loop.

- Buses generally ran on time and were very busy.  The off putting for a visitor however was the strange frequencies which I'm not used to.

- They have dedicated buses for the Smart Buses which have special liveries to make them distinct (Route 555 would be the equiv - not the BUZ as the Smart Buses drop to every 30mins after dark).

-  I also noticed that the prepaid buses here seem to have dedicated liveries as well.

- They now have Myki top up machines at pretty much all major locations, including universities.

- Most people are still using Metcard from what I saw, especially on rail, and those using Myki seem to be going through the things we went through back in the day of Go Card starting up - eg: people not touching the readers correctly.

- The hybrid (Frankenstien-ed) Myki/Metcard barriers at Flinders St and Southern Cross don't come up with your travel credit when you pass through them using a Myki, just a message of 'CSC Pass' - I have no idea what that means.  The Myki barriers do however show the totals on your card.

Anyway, that'll do for the time being, I'm back in Brisbane late tonight, but will need a few days to recover after a fairly long trip.

Cheers
STB (In Melbourne until 2015hrs local time)

[ButFli]

I actually found it really enjoyable that you didn't need to touch-off on a tram. Just touch-on and you are charged the standard one-zone fare. It can only work that way because all tram routes are entirely within zone 1 or the overlap between zone 1 and 2. So it isn't actually possible to do a two zone trip on a tram.

I'd like to see something similar implemented in Brisbane where if you don't touch off you are charged the fare you would be if you traveled to the end of the line, so to speak. eg touch-on on the 19x bus or Citycat and you would be charged a two zone fare if you didn't touch off. Might not work for trains though.

[somebody]

I actually found it really enjoyable that you didn't need to touch-off on a tram. Just touch-on and you are charged the standard one-zone fare. It can only work that way because all tram routes are entirely within zone 1 or the overlap between zone 1 and 2. So it isn't actually possible to do a two zone trip on a tram.

I'd like to see something similar implemented in Brisbane where if you don't touch off you are charged the fare you would be if you traveled to the end of the line, so to speak. eg touch-on on the 19x bus or Citycat and you would be charged a two zone fare if you didn't touch off. Might not work for trains though.

This should be easily achievable for ferries by setting the fixed fare to the price of the 2 zone trip.  But you would still suffer in your frequent user discount.

[ozbob]

With respect to travelling on tram in zone 2 with myki.  You must touch off to access the cheaper fare, only for travel entirely in zone 2.

--> http://www.myki.com.au/How-to-use/Touching-on---Touching-off

Trams routes 75, 86, 109 have outer sections in zone 2.