Is that a 50% ticket price increase Action is trying to sneak in with MyWay?

KB1971 said :

mikal said :

I think that might be because the people running ACTION are incompetent. Remember — they’re the people running ACTION after all!

Please quantify incompetent for me because I just don’t see it. I wait for bus, bus turns up on time & takes me to work.

They must be doing something right…..

Ditto – it works for me.

merlin bodega said :

This is the Government that has already pushed up fares by 30% in their term and yet moaned about why nobody catches buses. So why the surprised faces?

People do catch buses & a 30% increase is bugger all considering the current cash fare is only $4.00.

Action is so cheap its not funny, try some of the bigger cities for train & tram fares & see how you go.

This is the Government that has already pushed up fares by 30% in their term and yet moaned about why nobody catches buses. So why the surprised faces?

thy_dungeonman said :

When people say “tag off at the end of the trip” do they mean upon exiting each bus or after using the last bus in a trip that requires 2 or more buses?

You tag on getting on a bus and you tag off when getting off a bus, each and every bus. If on a trip you have to catch three buses, you must tag on and off each bus on the trip.

mikal said :

I think that might be because the people running ACTION are incompetent. Remember — they’re the people running ACTION after all!

Please quantify incompetent for me because I just don’t see it. I wait for bus, bus turns up on time & takes me to work.

They must be doing something right…..

When people say “tag off at the end of the trip” do they mean upon exiting each bus or after using the last bus in a trip that requires 2 or more buses?

Balthazar said :

So far I’ve never been over charged but have been under charged on many occasions. The system on the bus must get confused as it often shows that I get on and off a the start point of a run, such as at DFO on the 200 route, even though I never went anywhere near DFO, and I’m not charged. This has happend on many occasions.

I suspect that this is the software ‘glitch’ that they wanted to fix before the system went live.

Balthazar said :

But having used the system I’m left with a few questions.

If Canberra has a single fare system, why do you need to tag on and off a bus? The tagging off only becomes important if the fare system is based upon zones.

So I wonder if this is laying the foundations for a future zone system for action buses.

Very good question. There are a few possible answers (based upon nothing more than speculation) which have nothing to do with a variable fare structure:

(A) The system which won the tender was a copy of the Perth system which has a zonal fare structure. It was cheaper to keep the tag off requirement than to re-configure the software to remove it.

(B) TAMS Transport Planning were attracted to the idea that a tag on/tag off system also gives them data about passenger travel habits — and it’s cheaper, easier and more accurate to get the data this way than by customer surveys. Even though the fare structure does not require it.

(C) TAMS were not aware that you could run a smartcard system without tagging off.

Ian said :

4. likewise applies for rides in a week and in a month. you will be charged no more than a weekly or monthly ticket.

As Balthazar has pointed out, there will no longer be a weekly or monthly fare option. There will be fare cap of 38 rides ‘per calendar month’.

There will also be a School Term fare cap, but this was not included in the recent ticket trial.

I’ve been using MyWay for nearly 2 months.

It works pretty simply, when you tag on at the start of a trip AND tag off at the end of the trip you are charged $2.52. A transfer option is automatically invoked so you can go and get on another bus for up to 90 minutes after your first tag on, the same as the magnetic tickets. Yesterday I caught 3 buses in that 90 minutes and was only charged $2.52. There is a daily maximum charge you can expect of $7.60 which means you would have to catch 4 full fare trips before this comes into effect but the 4th one will only cost you 4 cents.

A word of warning though, if you do not tag off at the end of a trip you will be charged the trip cash price of $4.

I use to buy a monthly ticket for $92.50. There is no such think as a monthly MyWay ticket. However, if you catch the bus and pay for 38 trips within a month the rest of the month is free. That equates to $95.76 which is therefore a price rise over the previous monthly price. So far I’ve not used 38 trips in a month so I don’t know how it shows on my transaction log.

So far I’ve never been over charged but have been under charged on many occasions. The system on the bus must get confused as it often shows that I get on and off a the start point of a run, such as at DFO on the 200 route, even though I never went anywhere near DFO, and I’m not charged. This has happend on many occasions.

Not all buses have MyWay readers so on those occasions I’ve got a free trip. There have also been occasions when the system has not been working and I again get a free ride. One day last week I had free rides all day for one reason or another. I think this sort of thing will continue to happen from time to time after the system is implemented.

But having used the system I’m left with a few questions.

If Canberra has a single fare system, why do you need to tag on and off a bus? The tagging off only becomes important if the fare system is based upon zones.

So I wonder if this is laying the foundations for a future zone system for action buses.

I expect they will retain the current fares, until July when they usually put them up anyway. It is dumb to have a fare increase at the same time as a new ticketing system – people blame the increase on the ticketing changes and it pisses them off.

The way I understand the fares will work is (using adult fares as an example):

1. pay cash on the bus $4
2. use a card and it is $2.52 (less 5% if you recharge using BPAY or autoload). Except if you don’t tag off in which case it is $4 (or possibly $3.80 with the discount)
3. if your $2.52 rides add up to more than the cost of a daily ticket, you only get charged the price of a daily ticket
4. likewise applies for rides in a week and in a month. you will be charged no more than a weekly or monthly ticket.

The amount of value stored on the card is nothing to do with any multiple of any ticket type. It is simply a credit from which the ticket price is deducted. If you have say $0.72 left and recharge it with $20, it will then have $20.72 to use on fares. Presumably they will have some way you can cash out the balance on a card in some circumstances.

I can’t see any mention of what they plan to do if you try to use a card that is low on credit. Not let you travel unless you can cover the maximum possible fare for the ride ($4?).

Something else a stored value card does is stops people stockpiling tickets – so whereas now you could by a stack of 10 ride tickets in anticipation of a price rise, and take as long as you liked to use them up, in future you will be debited the new fare the day it goes up.

I actually would prefer ACTION to change to a distance based fare. At least they should have a short trip fare of say $1 or $2 – seems crazy to me that it costs the same to go from my Belconnen suburb to Belconnen Mall as it does to go to Tuggeranong.

ps0104 said :

I’d put my money on a new fare structure being announced when it goes live. I’d guess there will be increases, but not to the tune of 50% or there would be public outrage.
We shall wait and see…

On a side note, lets be realistic…the actual cost per ride is currently less than $2.52. I normally get AT LEAST 2 or 3 free rides (on one occasion I think I made it to 6 in a row) per 10 trip ticket due to the dodgy ticket machines.

Happy to relieve you of your money! How much do you want to bet? What about $50 to your chosen charity.

Enjoy your free rides while it lasts, once MyWay is in place, all unused magnetic tickets will need to be transferred over to MyWay.

Expect to hear some details about the start date very soon. My sources tell me the cards will be available in March.