Will NSW please get their public transport ticketing together!
What gives me the $hiz this week is that I am working part-time out in Westmead. I need to catch a train a few days a week, but not everyday. So I wouldn’t buy a travel pass or a weekly because it’s not economical. I just want to be able to quickly get on the train when I need to without having to queue up to buy a ticket for each individual trip. And another thing, I always seem to get in the slowest line, whether at the ticket machine or the human booth. AND there are not enough of either at Central Station (I’m talking Central freakin’ station, not some piddly little suburban station). AND today, when I went to the ticket machine with my exact right change, one of the $2 coins I had just kept falling through, so I had to cancel my transaction and go to the human booth anyway. Why can’t it be like in Hong Kong with the Octopus card - OMG that public transport ticketing system is so good!
beccyjoe said,
July 18, 2008 @ 5:21 am
rozie, i feel your pain. while living in hurstville and training in to the city every day, i actually enjoyed the train ride, but getting a ticket seemed to be such an annoying process that often i just “fare evaded”. on many occasions both ticket machines would be out of order and the line at the human booth would be twenty people long! F THAT.
Q said,
July 18, 2008 @ 11:25 pm
yeah, when we were overseas - basically in any other major city - experiencing efficient and reliable PT, our familiar disgust at Sydney transport would flare up. Heard somewhere that some PT consultants from either HK or the UK came in to analyse our transport system, and their response was effectively “Uh. You guys are effed. See you.”
James said,
July 22, 2008 @ 7:27 am
OMG I know what you mean. I am currently in Stockholm. I’ve paid about $120 for an unlimited monthly travel ticket on all forms of public transport in Stockholm. And of course, they have a metro system that’s regular, clean and well used. Sweden, with a population of 8 million could afford this, why can’t Sydney?