MyWay changes incoming

damien haas said :

Its an improvement to close the manned office at Belconnen? There are no locations in the Belconnen Westfield on their info page where i can hand my card over for a recharge. Have they even approached the two newsagents or the Tatts kiosk?

Not sure what info page you’re looking at. This one http://www.transport.act.gov.au/catch_a_bus/myway/myway_recharge_agents clearly shows two newsagencies at Westfield Belconnen, not to mention the Canberra Connect shopfront.

The other aspect of closing the MyWay centres, is that they are responsible for route and timetable information (when they are open at least). A tweet from @TAMSmediaroom stated that, after the closures, bus information will be available “online (via ACTION website and Google Transit), Canberra Connect Shopfronts and recharge agents”.

Strange how Alistair Coe has gone missing over this issue.

Bells said :

and the reason for closing the belconnen shop is what?

Yeah, what’s that about? Close a shop at a major interchange and open new ones at smaller local centres – too bad for anyone who travels primarily from a Belconnen suburb that isnt Hawker to the Belconnen interchange.

Surely the best places for shop fronts would be the town centre interchanges.

I really don’t get the problem with tagging off. It’s become second nature to me when catching a bus. I don’t see it as a big deal (except when the machine is broken, but then they can tag you off manually if they so choose..)

But I don’t understand shutting the Myway shopfronts, seems stupid to me.

54-11 said :

Or, as suggested, surely you have enough data by now and you can just dispense with the aggravating tag-off process. Either way, it is a big fail for the buses.

But travel patterns change, take for example this time last year. More people would of tagged off along Gundaroo Road in Crace. But now people don’t, others have changed jobs or moved or are now unemployed. So less/more people take the Xpresso’s, maybe that Xpresso from Charnwood to Centrelink is no longer an option as they have all grown up & moved to Gungahlin.

The Transport Planners have to work this out & it’s hell of a lot easier with the MyWay data. With other cities using this data & then enter a proposed route & ticket data into a system & it spits out the projected patronage. Some of these routes in other cities were a big thing & many thought they couldn’t work, like cross city travel in off peak without passing through the City. These routes have flourished.

Since it is basically the same system, Perth have a wonderful website with lots of helpful information at http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/TicketsandFares/SmartRider.aspx & a brochure with lots more information at http://www.transperth.wa.gov.au/Default.aspx?tabid=362&id=86

Imagine the money they could save if they never introduced myway and just made buses free…..seriously

magiccar9 said :

Darkfalz said :

How about not penalising people for forgetting to tag off?

Also, how about not penalising people for not tagging off when the freaking machine is broken or unresponsive. The drivers don’t care, they just grunt and tell you to hurry off the bus.

Agreed. The drivers don’t give a stuff, and it takes a long time to sort out when things go wrong through no fault of ours. Been waiting nearly a month for non-ACTION to credit me with some tag-off fails.

ACTION, get your act together!

Or, as suggested, surely you have enough data by now and you can just dispense with the aggravating tag-off process. Either way, it is a big fail for the buses.

gospeedygo said :

I see they still haven’t done anything about the ~5 day wait for topping up online.

“The easiest way to manage MyWay cards continues to be online.”

Yup.

That is not Transport for Canberra’s fault so not much they can do about it. Also not I didn’t say Action, because Action doesn’t run MyWay. The problem lies within the Australian banking system, where money will leave your account then make it’s way slowly to the payee, all the while the banks are making money off your money.

You could also use Autoload where you “instruct” the card to deduct a given amount when your card goes under a set limit. What happens is when you get to the limit the card tops up, then hits the bank latter that day. This way the time to get the money from you to Action is not an issue, unlike doing a manual top-up using BPAY.

damien haas said :

“The ACT Government has undertaken a review of MyWay operations to improve options for the public to purchase and manage their cards.”

Its an improvement to close the manned office at Belconnen? There are no locations in the Belconnen Westfield on their info page where i can hand my card over for a recharge. Have they even approached the two newsagents or the Tatts kiosk?

This is not an improvement, it is a reduction in service.

The news agent next to Dan Murphy’s does MyMay cards, though do agree closing the shop and the one in Civic is hardly an improvement.

I also notice that Kippax, a major group centre still doesn’t have an agent.

Bells said :

and the reason for closing the belconnen shop is what?

To improve your purchasing options. Its an improvement. This is compulsory wording for all govco announcements.

“The ACT Government has undertaken a review of MyWay operations to improve options for the public to purchase and manage their cards.”

Its an improvement to close the manned office at Belconnen? There are no locations in the Belconnen Westfield on their info page where i can hand my card over for a recharge. Have they even approached the two newsagents or the Tatts kiosk?

This is not an improvement, it is a reduction in service.