Changing times
Sep. 3rd, 2009 02:59 pmI used my GreenCard for the first time today.
Metro, the bus company, have changed their ticketing system. They're been using the same flimsy cardboard tickets since, I have no idea, at least since I started using it in 1988. You'd buy a blue single or day ticket from driver, or a 10 trip or monthly ticket from a metro agent (usually a newsagent), and throw it away once used. These multi-trips could only be bought from an agent, not the driver, so you had to remember to get new ones, and from time to time they'd stop working, because the magnetic strip got wiped (I suspect the library's barcode scanner of doing this) or they got damaged or they just went missing.
So enter the new GreenCard, which is a plastic card of the usual credit-card size. They call it Green because you don't throw it away after using it. You recharge it ("top it up"), at the newsagent or get the driver to do it or online (At home!)
Last year, Metro redid the bus timetables. Not just making changes to the existing system, but totally redoing all the routes and the times. With the old system, the bus past my place was every 25 mins during the day, so as you can see, it left as different times every hour. Catching them meant either having to check the timetable *every trip* or counting back/forward from the times I'd memorised, working out when this bus would arrive and if that fitted with what I wanted to do. Now they run at the same time every hour so I know, within a few mins, when they will arrive here and there, and it's just a matter of checking the time on my watch. It is so much more convenient (and that's not even mentioning the extra evening & more frequent weekend services). It's good, even if the timetables are still tricky to reader. But when it first came in, there was much confusion and upheaval. The first Monday I looked at the timetable at the bottom of my driveway, gave up and walked down the road to where I knew all the buses had to pass and waited there.
Now they've changed the ticketing system. Things are different, again. Just little things but...
Coming home on Saturday, the bus had the new ticket machine installed but obviously wasn't issuing tickets, so we all got a free ride.
I wondered how single tickets were handled. I found out on Monday: the driver prints out a little invoice-like slip. (I donated the one I had to the museum, along with my regular blue card one from Saturday the last day the old system was in use. They thought this a good idea.)
I was a little apprehensive about using the plastic card too. I put $10 on it today and got $12.50 credit. I'm not sure how that works yet. Also, according to my account, my "default trip" is 11+ sections, which is not a cheap trip! I was hoping that meant the sections length was unlimited (I used to get 90 minute trips, with no section limit) but I was a bit worried. Anyway I put it on the machine and it told me the fare deducted (right amount) and the balance! I was also worried about the return trip that it might deduct that amount again, but it just said "Transfer OK. Boarding type transfer", or something like that. It's weird :)
It does look like it's going to be much more convenient and quicker. Although I have noticed there is no way to tell when the time (90 mins) expires. This could be a problem.
(LJ tells me I am currently in Melbourne.)
Metro, the bus company, have changed their ticketing system. They're been using the same flimsy cardboard tickets since, I have no idea, at least since I started using it in 1988. You'd buy a blue single or day ticket from driver, or a 10 trip or monthly ticket from a metro agent (usually a newsagent), and throw it away once used. These multi-trips could only be bought from an agent, not the driver, so you had to remember to get new ones, and from time to time they'd stop working, because the magnetic strip got wiped (I suspect the library's barcode scanner of doing this) or they got damaged or they just went missing.
So enter the new GreenCard, which is a plastic card of the usual credit-card size. They call it Green because you don't throw it away after using it. You recharge it ("top it up"), at the newsagent or get the driver to do it or online (At home!)
Last year, Metro redid the bus timetables. Not just making changes to the existing system, but totally redoing all the routes and the times. With the old system, the bus past my place was every 25 mins during the day, so as you can see, it left as different times every hour. Catching them meant either having to check the timetable *every trip* or counting back/forward from the times I'd memorised, working out when this bus would arrive and if that fitted with what I wanted to do. Now they run at the same time every hour so I know, within a few mins, when they will arrive here and there, and it's just a matter of checking the time on my watch. It is so much more convenient (and that's not even mentioning the extra evening & more frequent weekend services). It's good, even if the timetables are still tricky to reader. But when it first came in, there was much confusion and upheaval. The first Monday I looked at the timetable at the bottom of my driveway, gave up and walked down the road to where I knew all the buses had to pass and waited there.
Now they've changed the ticketing system. Things are different, again. Just little things but...
Coming home on Saturday, the bus had the new ticket machine installed but obviously wasn't issuing tickets, so we all got a free ride.
I wondered how single tickets were handled. I found out on Monday: the driver prints out a little invoice-like slip. (I donated the one I had to the museum, along with my regular blue card one from Saturday the last day the old system was in use. They thought this a good idea.)
I was a little apprehensive about using the plastic card too. I put $10 on it today and got $12.50 credit. I'm not sure how that works yet. Also, according to my account, my "default trip" is 11+ sections, which is not a cheap trip! I was hoping that meant the sections length was unlimited (I used to get 90 minute trips, with no section limit) but I was a bit worried. Anyway I put it on the machine and it told me the fare deducted (right amount) and the balance! I was also worried about the return trip that it might deduct that amount again, but it just said "Transfer OK. Boarding type transfer", or something like that. It's weird :)
It does look like it's going to be much more convenient and quicker. Although I have noticed there is no way to tell when the time (90 mins) expires. This could be a problem.
(LJ tells me I am currently in Melbourne.)
