Early Bird Tickets

Page last modified/checked: Thursday, 27th November 2008 - HTML 4.01 Transitional

The "Early Bird" free travel arrangement is an unusual aspect of the Metcard ticketing system. In an attempt to encourage rail commuters to travel earlier in the morning, the Victorian Government instigated a three month trial of free travel on the Frankston and Sydenham lines from Monday 29th October 2007. This trial was applicable to all patrons travelling between all stations Frankston to Richmond, Sydenham to North Melbourne (inclusive) and the City Loop in either direction provided they exited their destination station no later than 7.00am Weekdays.

The purpose of the free travel trial was to gauge any reduction in overcrowding during the traditional 7.00am to 9.00am peak, and then determine if this scheme should be extended permanently to all lines. The special early bird Metcards are a means of measuring commuter acceptance while allowing normal validation procedures as well as exit and entry through barriered stations. These metcards could only be obtained from Premium stations on the lines involved in the trial and from the Met Shop.

The station issues are BOM-generated and most locations maintained a quantity of pre-printed tickets. The Met Shop issues were pre-encoded and line specific being identified with the letteres "F" (Frankston) and "S" (Sydenham) in the bottom left corner. The trial conditions allowed customers to obtain a maximum of 10 early bird tickets at once and encouraged them to simultaneously purchase a 10 x 2-hour Metcard for their homeward journey. A special poster was produced to bring attention to the trial as well as a double panel brochure providing details and a handbill giving the times of city-bound trains on both lines on which the early bird tickets could be used.

The BOM issues were available for both Zone 1 and Zone 1+2, whereas the pre-encoded tickets were only provided in a Zone 1+2 format.
Note the unique wording that is printed when either of these ticket types is validated.

The re-ordering code for these tickets was "226".

The results of this trial were somewhat guarded until early March 2008, when it was estimated that only 400 people participated by obtaining the early bird tickets. Similarly, in a press interview, Metlink CEO Bernie Carolan gave a frank and honest opinion of the early bird trial stating that "it had not set the world on fire". Ironically, a few days later, the State Government revealed that the free travel offer would be extended system-wide commencing from Monday 31st March 2008. In contrast to all this, in mid-May 2008 the State Government released a new figure of 1500 people as having taking advantage of the free travel offer. In an admission that even the State Government acknowleged themselves, it is difficult to discern between those who regularly travel in the early hours of the morning and thus benefitted from the free travel offer as against those who deliberately changed their travel patterns to take advantage of it.

To bring closure to the early bird free travel offer as it currently stands, the pre-encoded tickets were withdrawn from the Met Shop however a quantity of these were supplied to Premium stations (all?) in the week prior to the free travel offer becoming system wide (the "F" and "S" designator now becoming meaningless). This was probably done as a back-up while the Booking Office machines at all Premium stations were reprogrammed to issue the early bird Metcards. These BOM issued tickets are identical to those issued during the trial. A station poster was produced to promote the system wide free travel ticket and later, a small double sided handbill was also provided.

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