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4 comments on The Bullroarer - Tuesday 19th February 2008

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Big Gav on February 19, 2008 - 7:59am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

One more item :

SMH - Dumb card: relic bus ticket system for Sydney

IT HAS come to this: the State Government will buy the relics of Brisbane's obsolete ticketing system after ending an eight-year dream of a transport smartcard.

As Brisbane joins Perth and moves to its own Tcard, Translink, Brisbane's transport authority, has confirmed the NSW Government is trying to obtain 300 of Brisbane's 15-year-old magnetic stripe machines to bolster Sydney's ageing system.

The purchase - a month after the Transport Minister, John Watkins, terminated the Government's contract with the Tcard developer, ERG Limited - shows the Government is trying to patch together a ticketing system that is in tatters.

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SP on February 20, 2008 - 12:51am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

THAT is just ridiculous.

To quote Mark Twain, on the platform of Albury station at 6;45 am...

Think of the paralysis of intellect that gave that idea birth; imagine the boulder it emerged from, on some petrified legislators shoulders.

I have always wondered whether its really worth the trouble to have these complicated ticketing systems so that the "cost" can be apportioned in a manner that bean counters prefer.

But apparently it can be done... viz nearly any city in Japan or Singapore.

But if the objective is to get people on the system why not something realllly reallly simple. $2 = 2 hours, just put the coin in the slot.. you get a ticket with a time stamp... if you go over, a machine at the exit to make up the difference. I don't know, but all these permutations of zones and times...

OR in a world where nearly everyone and there pet has a mobile phone... you just send an sms to the transport office and get a confirmation sms! Gosh... I'm a genius. Might have the added "bonus" of being able to track customers via the network signals... especially if stations have micro cells. Transport authorities could get in on the mobile phone business by issuing there own prepaid plans maybe.

At what point does the increase in complexity lead to an increase in the cost of maintaining that complexity rather that providing the intended service?

At what point does it become more of a temptation to just not pay the fare?

Setting the system boundaries a bit wider... isn't the ultimate objective of the transport system to see that passengers get to work... and that this should be balanced against the energy and pollution cost of doing that?

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