Melbourne Train Riders To Use Contactless Fare Cards

The state government of Victoria, Australia will launch the contactless ticket system for trains in Melbourne, a spokesperson for the Transport Ticketing Authority, which manages the ticketing system, tells PaymentsSource. “We are assuming that it will be at least a couple of weeks before the system can be [launched] on trams and buses,” the spokesperson says. The state government says that about 1,000 government workers have been testing the cards in the Melbourne area for about two months. Myki is designed to replace a number of ticketing systems in Victoria, primarily the Metcard (metropolitan Melbourne) and V/Line (regional) ticketing systems. “For the passenger‚s convenience, we will run the old ticket system alongside myki for at least six months before we scrap [the old system],” the spokesperson adds. The myki system has run into previous problems, including 11,000 instances of overcharging across the state and complaints from bus passengers in the region of Geelong about malfunctioning readers and wrongful charges. Matthew Sinclair, executive director with Australia-based Carpadium Consulting, tells PaymentsSource that if myki operators cannot get the system working in a town the size of Geelong, with a population of about 162,000, then the scheme likely will fail in a city as large as Melbourne, with a population of about 4 million. “And this will be a big problem because Melbournites are big users of public transport,” he adds.