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The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has criticised the government’s botched rollout of the new Myki ticketing system onto Melbourne’s trains only, and has recommended that passengers continue using Metcard for the moment.

“Most passengers won’t want the hassle of a flaky ticketing system, and will want to keep using Metcard until Myki works properly on trams and buses as well as trains”, PTUA President Daniel Bowen said.

The government today said that Myki was now valid for travel on trains only. Trams and buses are still experiencing problems with the new technology, despite the system having run on buses in regional cities for almost a year.

Mr Bowen said the decision will cause confusion for passengers, particularly those who decide to try the new cards and catch buses and trams as well as trains.
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A seven-month travel time study has found no noticeable improvement in tram travel times from extended clearway hours on Sydney Road in Brunswick.

For some time, PTUA Secretary Tony Morton has been travelling to and from work with a stopwatch. His aim is to measure—carefully and scientifically—what it is that’s making Melbourne trams so slow. His stopwatch counts up the ‘dead time’ on tram journeys: the lost time when the tram isn’t actually picking up or dropping off passengers, yet is not moving.
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From PTUA’s December 2009 newsletter.

Despite having no Federal funds for its `Peninsula Link’, the State Government has announced its intention to proceed regardless, driving a motorway through precious native wildlife habitat and historic homesteads, in order to further entrench car dependence in south-east Melbourne and for visitors to the Peninsula.
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Departed operator Connex are paying compensation to Monthly and longer ticketholders for poor performance in October and November. Unfortunately the Connex web site has gone offline, but you can get the form from the Metro Trains web site.

The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has welcomed Metro Trains Melbourne on its first day of operation, and called for the government to boost services across the week.

“Around the world, the name ‘Metro’ means a service with frequent trains, from early to late, seven-days-a-week. This is what the government must commit to for Melbourne”, said PTUA President Daniel Bowen.

Mr Bowen said passengers needed to see more than just new logos on the trains and stations, and better reliability was critical. But he said the key to getting more people out of cars and onto public transport was a complete re-write of the timetable, incorporating trains at least every 10 minutes on all lines.

The PTUA says about 80% of Melbourne’s train system can cater for services every 10 minutes with no infrastructure changes.

“Trains every 10 minutes are possible on most of the rail network right now with the infrastructure we already have. All that’s needed is more drivers and maintenance staff.
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