Cash fares history as government seeks MyWay replacement

Yes, that would be handy. The ACT should still be able to hopefully set their own prices within the ACT. That depends on the Opal program though.

David Murn legal tender is any form of accepted payment. I assume you really mean to say cash which is an example of legal tender but so too is a stored value card (like the current MyWay) and debit/credit cards.

Fact is very few bus/tram services accept cash these days and there is no legal requirement for them to accept cash.

Legal tender means that it must be accepted for payment of a debt. Cash is accepted by anyone, MyWay is not.

Just because there may be no legal requirement to cater to the poor, it doesn’t mean that public services shouldn’t still try to do it.

David Murn ah no it doesn’t. Just because you have something like cash that is considered legal tender doesn’t mean it has to be accepted. Acceptance of a form of tender is a contractural issue between seller and buyer.

And for the record cash isn’t accepted by everyone. Plenty of places now days do not accept cash.

David Murn why would low income earners pay more? Cash fares were more expensive than MyWay fares to encourage people to use them.

You are right, vendors can choose not to accept cash, and make that agreement before the transaction. As I tried to point out though, not everyone has a credit card ready to recharge with the minimum required top-up, simply to take a bus trip.

With regards to legal tender, once a debt has been raised, an offer of legal tender is exactly that.. legal tender. A restaurant cannot give you a meal, then afterwards refuse your cash payment, and tell you that you must pay in bitcoin.

I didn’t say they’d pay more, however the fact that you have to pre-purchase rides, whether you use them or not, means that some people will pay more. Maybe they should allow people to cash in any unused rides.. although I imagine unused rides are part of the business model.

David Murn your last point is moot. If you go to the restaurant and they advise no cash but only accept Bitcoin then you by eating there have accepted their terms, so no you cannot just hand over cash.

That’s the same with public transport in many cities in this and other countries. Very few accept cash these days.

Ashley Wright whatever happened to the words “legal tender?”

Helen Prior I thought I explained it above. But anyway just because something is legal tender doesn’t mean it is automatically accepted. When you buy something (even paying for a bus fare) you are entering into a contract and you pay by the means set out in that contract. If a vendor says no cash then they are well within their rights to refuse cash.

Also think you will find the only place cash of any denomination must be accepted is at a bank.

Karen Feng it’s hard because state governments tendered different companies to build the transport smart card systems. Sydney opal was based of London’s oyster smart card system. Brisbane and Melbourne are based of other older systems and the ACT is different again. Putting them all together would cost millions and I doubt the states would do it

Sean Tomlinson A start though, as we are going to get a new system, would be to join with the NSW Opal card system. That would be one less different system.

Julie Macklin it’s the choice of the government’s who do the tendering process. Ideally yes. But reality maybe not

Sean Tomlinson Yes, they chose the present system.