Premium Daily TicketEarliest known or dated issue: 21st December 2001Page last modified/checked: Tuesday, 28 June, 2005100 tram attendants were employed during March 2001, fulfilling a key election pledge from the Labor Government. Their duties include assisting passengers and selling tickets at certain busy tram stops. Tram attendents sell pre-encoded Zone 1 daily Adult and concession tickets at a 10% premium on the normal fare. (Remember, vending machines on trams do not sell daily tickets). The initial stock they were supplied with was the pre-encoded blue generic design. Tram attendants soon found they were being repeatedly queried by passengers as to why they were being asked to pay a higher fare than if they had purchased the ticket elsewhere. The Premium fare charged by Tram attendants is, in effect, a penalty for not having done just that. As a means of helping to explain this situation, the rear of all existing ticket stock was stamped as shown below, to highlight and prove to the passenger the legitimacy of the higher fare. It is believed that this occurred by June 2001.
As a further step, a unique design was produced which highlighted the fare on the face of the ticket - the first time this has been done with a Metcard.
The January 2002 fare rise had an unusual effect on the sale of the Premium Daily tickets: remember, these are non-core tickets and offered only by the two tram franchises. Yarra Trams chose to maintain the tickets at their existing price but M>Tram increased theirs by 10c. Thus it is possible to buy an identical ticket from the tram attendants of either operator but one costs slightly more!. Also for this reason, M>Tram could no longer sell the dedicated Premium Daily design because the original price is printed on the front. It is presumed that Yarra Trams are only issuing dedicated Premium Daily tickets, whilst M>Tram continue to sell pre-encoded blue generic tickets stamped on the back with the higher price as shown hereunder.
A check with Yarra trams staff during May 2005 revealed that the premium dailies were withdrawn when tram machines were modified to sell daily tickets by October 2002; thus giving premium daily tickets a life of approximately 18 months. |
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