Trams are expensive here

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Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml⁩ to ⁨melbourne@aussie.zone⁩

In town for a few months. Been watching the tap on rates on the trams.

I’m going to hazard an approximation of about 20% of people are actually tapping on. Maybe 30% at a stretch.

Surely if they did a Brisbane, and dropped it to 50c or even $1, then most everyone would tap.

There comes a point , when things are affordable rnough, that it’s not worth the risk / anxiety.

At current pricing it’s obviously still worth the risk.

I can only imagine if the 70% or so that are not paying, paid $1, that there’d be more money in the system.

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Evil_incarnate@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Years ago in Germany, some people worked out the odds of getting caught without a ticket and found that it wasn’t worth buying a ticket. They formed a group and if anyone got fined, they all paid the fine together. Then when the government found out, they doubled the fine.

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- calhoon2005@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Isn’t that what happened with the streaking laws here…?
  
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a1studmuffin@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You don’t need to tap on in the Melbourne CBD free tram zone.

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- Kanzar@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  True, but I travel out of the free tram zone and also see very few people tap on there too.
  
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  - trolololol@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Many people buy the monthly things so they only need to tap once a month to activate it
    
    When an inspector comes in tram you’ll see most if not all people are not in trouble.
    
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- MisterFrog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Unpopular option, but the free tram zone is worthless, and subsidising people who live in the city.
  
  Either let’s make PT entirely free, or get rid of it.
  
  Such a pain when you’re trying to get your team home at night (and they only run every 20 mins or so), and it’s chokablock with people taking the tram 1 or 2 stops within the CBD.
  
  Or they really ought to do something about frequency into the evening, maybe get some teams just for shuttling within the CBD, and give trams priority at lights.
  
  You can almost walk as fast as you can tram in the CBD (not quite, but still).
  
  Current set up kinda sucks.
  
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maegul@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Yea I’ve kept track of how often I’ve encountered inspectors, and most of the time it’d be worth it to not get the ticket or not tap on. Sometimes though I’ve noticed an increase in the number of inspectors that would definitely shift the equation. Also train stations with gates complicate the matter.

I don’t know if it’s out there, but I’d personally like to know how the finances come out for making PT free. You obviously lose revenue, but also all the overhead of paying for inspectors and for all of the ticketing infrastructure. I also wonder if the part that makes the finances work is all the fines collected, which would be pretty fucking shithouse if true.

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- notgold@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  In 2005, the state committed almost $1 billion to develop myki by 2007 to replace the ageing Metcard system, and operate myki for 10 years
  
  Just over half of myki’s almost $1 billion initial budget—around $520 million—was for establishing the system by 2007 and operating it for 10 years.
  
  It was expected that myki would deliver around $6.3–$10.8 million per year in economic benefits to the state…
  
  myki was great value /s
  
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  - maegul@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I remember hearing rumours during the role out that tech employees were found asking for help on forums in ways that weren’t promising for the health and talent of the people building it.
    
    But yea, it’s the embarrassment of this sort of stuff that must be masking the real financials of PT and how viable a free system would be.
    
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  - melbaboutown@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Myki sucked… I got intimidated, accused of lying and fined despite tapping on because the machine itself didn’t function properly in cold weather. (Didn’t register the tap.)
    
    It over complicated topping up and screws over visitors, and has a central point of failure if there are tech issues.
    
    It creates a digital divide where homeless people or those without access to technology may struggle to pay and get locked into a loop of unpaid fines.
    
    I heard the software wasn’t appropriate and that tested working models should have been used.
    
    The non biodegradable plastic cards also expire while we’re having issues with recycling.
    
    The existing system worked alright but the government wanted to flex and so we got this.
    
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