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Last Friday afternoon I found myself at the local rail station, preparing to board a train to the outer suburbs to visit family. Ordinarily this is a simple and painless experience, but this time it was a little more complicated than usual. This is a bit long, so I'm sorry.
Public transport in Melbourne, for the out-of-towners, is provided by a variety of companies all responsible to an agency called Metlink. They provide tickets, known as Metcards, that are valid across all forms of PT in the metropolitan area. This area is divided into 2 zones and tickets are sold by time, not by distance - i.e. one might by a two-hour zone 1 ticket, rather than a single trip between two stations.
Now because our government is progressive and cheap we haven't had guards or conductors on trains, trams, or buses since around 2000, meaning that passengers must buy tickets prior to travel. One may do this by calling Metlink or using their website and having them mailed, by going to a newsagent or 7-11 store, or by using the machines placed at railway stations and on-board trams.
Now because the government is financially challenged we also don't have staff at all stations - the machine is all you've got.
So I was waiting on the platform near the ticket machine when a group of three people walk up - one mother, son, and one who might have been a daughter but could have a family of her own. Son (hereafter S) is holding a crisp $50 note. Everything is fine up to this point, but big notes are never a good sign...
Grown-up daughter (D) already has a ticket, and mother (M) somehow deems herself eligible for concession fares - so mother works out that she wants two zone 2 2-hours, at $2.50 each for a total of $5.00. So she's about to press the appropriate buttons when I hear an indignant
"I can't buy two tickets at the same time?"
Seasoned traveller that I am, my spidey-sense starts tingling. Infrequent user toting a 50 doesn't work anywhere in Melbourne - as M will soon discover.
After pressing the right buttons she's about to feed the note into the slot when...
"TVM WILL NOT DISPENSE MORE THEN $10 CHANGE"
I decide to step in and assist and so offer my services to the harried mother. She looks me up and down with harrumph but grudgingly accepts. I point out that she can pay by debit card, or EFTPOS. But no, M grumbles, she's only got credit cards.
Well, she is up a certain type of polluted watercourse without an aquatic propulsion device. By this stage there's a nice queue of people forming, but I note that nobody is using the coin-only machine next to us.
At this stage I would have offered to break her 50 for her, but seeing as I travel on a yearly ticket and rarely make transactions over $10 without planning ahead, I can't.
As it M & Co weren't stressed enough, we hear "Attention Platform 2. The next train to depart from Platform 2 is the 4.37 Glen Waverley, stopping all stations to Glen Waverley, departing in one minute," and then, as is to top it off with an insult, "Remember to validate your Metcard before you travel."
So M decides to risk it and hustles the clan on-board. I break of my association here, apologising that I was unable to assist.
M was busted by Transit Police three stops down the line and was using some very unsavoury language when I got off.
Now, she'll probably get off the fine if she bought a ticket when she got off at the other end, but I'm just not sure what to think of the situation. We all criticise SCs for trying to use large notes for tiny purchases, but there's a big difference between trying to buy a coffee and trying to buy a ticket.
On the other hand, the system isn't designed very well for people who aren't frequent users.
Public transport in Melbourne, for the out-of-towners, is provided by a variety of companies all responsible to an agency called Metlink. They provide tickets, known as Metcards, that are valid across all forms of PT in the metropolitan area. This area is divided into 2 zones and tickets are sold by time, not by distance - i.e. one might by a two-hour zone 1 ticket, rather than a single trip between two stations.
Now because our government is progressive and cheap we haven't had guards or conductors on trains, trams, or buses since around 2000, meaning that passengers must buy tickets prior to travel. One may do this by calling Metlink or using their website and having them mailed, by going to a newsagent or 7-11 store, or by using the machines placed at railway stations and on-board trams.
Now because the government is financially challenged we also don't have staff at all stations - the machine is all you've got.
So I was waiting on the platform near the ticket machine when a group of three people walk up - one mother, son, and one who might have been a daughter but could have a family of her own. Son (hereafter S) is holding a crisp $50 note. Everything is fine up to this point, but big notes are never a good sign...
Grown-up daughter (D) already has a ticket, and mother (M) somehow deems herself eligible for concession fares - so mother works out that she wants two zone 2 2-hours, at $2.50 each for a total of $5.00. So she's about to press the appropriate buttons when I hear an indignant
"I can't buy two tickets at the same time?"
Seasoned traveller that I am, my spidey-sense starts tingling. Infrequent user toting a 50 doesn't work anywhere in Melbourne - as M will soon discover.
After pressing the right buttons she's about to feed the note into the slot when...
"TVM WILL NOT DISPENSE MORE THEN $10 CHANGE"
I decide to step in and assist and so offer my services to the harried mother. She looks me up and down with harrumph but grudgingly accepts. I point out that she can pay by debit card, or EFTPOS. But no, M grumbles, she's only got credit cards.
Well, she is up a certain type of polluted watercourse without an aquatic propulsion device. By this stage there's a nice queue of people forming, but I note that nobody is using the coin-only machine next to us.
At this stage I would have offered to break her 50 for her, but seeing as I travel on a yearly ticket and rarely make transactions over $10 without planning ahead, I can't.
As it M & Co weren't stressed enough, we hear "Attention Platform 2. The next train to depart from Platform 2 is the 4.37 Glen Waverley, stopping all stations to Glen Waverley, departing in one minute," and then, as is to top it off with an insult, "Remember to validate your Metcard before you travel."
So M decides to risk it and hustles the clan on-board. I break of my association here, apologising that I was unable to assist.
M was busted by Transit Police three stops down the line and was using some very unsavoury language when I got off.
Now, she'll probably get off the fine if she bought a ticket when she got off at the other end, but I'm just not sure what to think of the situation. We all criticise SCs for trying to use large notes for tiny purchases, but there's a big difference between trying to buy a coffee and trying to buy a ticket.
On the other hand, the system isn't designed very well for people who aren't frequent users.
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