Planning on travelling on the public transport system anytime soon? You’d better brush up on the “wonderful” idiosyncrasies of the Myki ticketing system. And quick. From this week onwards, Public Transport Ticket Inspectors will be carrying EFTPOS machines with them, meaning that if you cop a fine you’ll have the option of paying it on-the-spot for a reduced price.
The new system means that you’ll have the option of either coughing up $75 on-the-spot to cover the fine, or else you’ll face the regular price of $217 if you don’t have the money/want to launch a challenge.
‘Course this also means that the Melbourne public transport system now has the curious/outright fucking frustrating anomaly whereby if you’re sitting on a seat on a tram you’ll be able to pay your fine right then and there, despite the fact that you still can’t actually buy a ticket for that same tram whilst on board.
And there are apparently no excuses, either. Which includes faulty Myki readers or an inability to check the balance of your card before boarding. Nope. Out the window. Forget about it.
In addition, the system has been slightly tweaked so that 2 hour Myki touch ons now last for 2 hours exactly post-touching on. Previously, the two hour period was rounded up to the end of the next hour, meaning you could theoretically have a 2 hour fare that lasted 2 hours and 59 minutes. Now when they say 2 hours they mean 2 hours, whereas previously they meant 2 hours-ish.
Yeah, look. I don’t fully understand it either.
