As people familiar to Melbourne well know, the Myki system is a complete and utter farce, having gone Billions of dollars over budget, it seems now that they have come up with a few ways to scrape their lost dollars back.
The first of which most people will already be aware of;
THE REMOVAL OF SHORT TERM/SINGLE USE PAPER TICKETS FROM THE SYSTEM
When the system was going through it's first reigonal trial in 2007 (ballarat, bendigo and geelong), a single use paper ticket option was available, either for someone who didnt travel often enough to warrant the purchase of a Myki, or for tourists.... Afterall... who in their right mind would pay (ontop of the ticket cost) for a card they're only going to use for a few days....?
Yes, in Brisbane you must do the same thing, however you will be refunded your deposit on the card upon handing it in (woah, single use paper tickets can be used!).
In my current City of Adelaide a smartcard system also exists, which still has paper tickets (for rare travellers and tourists).
In melbourne? "hey thanks for the extra $7, now f*ck of!"
Famously, after heavy opposition from the traveling public, the option was removed with a 'go f*ck yourselves' kind of attitude.
In my recent trip to Melbourne (from adelaide, where a smartcard system exists with the appropriate single use/disposable tickets still available) this problem was highlighted, with the fact in buying a Myki, a tourist essentially has to pay an extra fee for the privellidge to buy a ticket.
I was utterly dumbfounded however, when I was told (by a Ticket Inspector) I could not purchase a ticket on the tram, yet I could pay the fine instantly via the EFTPOS TERMINAL HE WAS CARRYING.
Yep, that's right, you can pay an uncontestable fine via eftpos but not buy a ticket on the tram.
Because clearly, that's very fair.
This petition essentially aims to stop the disgusting, unjust money grabbing by ptv with the return of the short term ticket option.... or even *bare with me on this one* actually have to ability to purchase a tram ticket....ON THE TRAM!
PLUS to remove the On The Spot fine that allows them to literally bully money out of commuters!
(the fact this is apparently such an insane idea in melbourne should disgust you all).
Sign on if you want a fair and user friendly system returned to Melbourne!
Fun fact: Metcard already had the technology for a smartcard system when the Metcard was brought in, but the government decided it was 'too far ahead of it's time', thus was not used.
This technology sat idle on metcard's infastructure until its removal along with the metcard ticket.
This means, that every single taxpayer dollar spent on Myki, has been completely and utterly wasted.
I hope you're proud of that.
