The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has called on the Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder to clarify the position regarding Myki short-term tickets.
PTUA Regional Spokesman Paul Westcott said yesterday’s announcement about Myki had created uncertainty for regional bus users in areas using Myki, including Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.
“Over sixty percent of bus travellers are using short-term tickets[1], yet Mr Mulder says that they are going to be eliminated ‘to the extent possible’. That threatens to create a huge problem for bus passengers and is likely to be a disincentive for people to use public transport.”
The PTUA acknowledges that the current short-term ticket, with embedded circuitry, is an uneconomic proposition, costing about 35 cents each to produce.[2]
However Mr Westcott noted that there seems to be the simple alternative of retaining short-term tickets by having them printed-out from the bus driver’s Myki console.
“If that alternative is feasible, it would retain the most popular ticketing option, but at a tiny fraction of the current cost,” he said. “We want Terry Mulder to tell us if that simple and cheap alternative is available, and if it is, to tell us of any reason why it can’t be adopted.”
[1] The Age, 26/11/2010: Bill for myki rises again
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/state-election-2010/bill-for-myki-rises-again-20101125-1895g.html
[2] ibid