Geelong goes livePage created Sunday, 5th April, 2009 - HTML 4.01 TransitionalLast modified/checked: Wednesday, 29th April, 2009 |
There are two bus operators in the Geelong/Bellarine peninsula region. Benders operate the Geelong urban services under the guise of GTS. McHarry's operate services from Geelong out on to the Ballarine peninsula under the guise of BTS. The GTS and BTS each had their own paper tickets as well as a combined GTS/BTS fare. The GTS fares are time based allowing transfer to other services including V/Line trains in the Geelong region and this has existed since 1982. Myki operates on distance based zones outwards from Melbourne which a;ready comprises zones 1 and 2. In the case of the Geelong region, the GTS is within zone 4 and the former BTS is in zone 5. A future zone 3 will cover the bulk of Geelong's nothern suburbs however at this time it is not clear whether this will constitue a separate fare zone for GTS or exist more for V/line train services towards Melbourne. There way in which Myki is being described to Victorians is to remove the familiar local understanding of ticketing terms and fixed fare structures and replace them with a single term "Myki". The idea is that Myki does all the thinking for you. So using Geelong as an example, people understood the GTS as meaning both the local bus sytem and its tickets. Myki is now the generic product that will eventually cover the majority of local ticketing arrangements. Possibly the Geelong region bus services were chosen for the public launch of Myki because they offered a suitable test area comprising several operators, a large network and several fare charging zones which allows the interface between Myki software and the global positioning system to recognise the physical location of buses and therefore allow Myki to calculate the correct fare during touch on and touch off. The first active stage for Myki in Geelong involved a pilot trial of 5 McHarry's buses over three routes between 30 April and 23 May 2008 and was purely a technical/scenario test involving Kamco, TTA and McHarry's staff. The first public interface was with a small group of selected patrons on 4 bus routes between Geelong railway station and the Bellarine Peninsula commencing on the 8 December 2008. In late December a further 4 bus routes were added to this stage. These 8 services incorporate routes 74 to 81 and are all operated by McHarry's. We believe that from this time, the myki cards were obtaind from the roving "Myki mates" onboard these buses however they were also available for use on all other Geelong buses simply by presentation to the driver. The next step was the opening of the temporary Myki shop in the Geelong city centre on 19 January 2009. After the final fitting out of all remaining buses on which the wiring had already been installed, Myki was very quietly made operational system wide from the 2nd of March 2009. Much of the information herein was obtained from our visit to Geelong on the 28th March when we personally put myki to the test. |
Fare payment cardsThe four types of Myki card are shown below. Each comes sealed in a plastic sleeve with a miniature guide booklet included (a good idea). It is important to understand here a key aspect of the Myki launch in Geelong (and subsequent regions). To encourage the public to obtain a Myki card, the card purchase fee of $10 adult and $7 for concession cards was waived during thr launch phase and all cards were purhased at a flat rate of $5 which was already credited (loaded) enabling immediate travel. This was reflected in the wording on the identification stickers on the plastic sleeves. There are three types of sleeve identification noted; a blue sticker for full fare Myki, a green sticker for the Child and Concession fare cards, and a dark blue Senior myki. The full fare card is unique in having blue print and illustrates the Melbourne Art Centre spire. The three concession fare cards use green ink and feature a tropical fish as well as the letters CH = child, C = concession and S = senior. Ticket numbers seen so far indicate the hint of a numerical seqence as all commence with 3 08425, then 0000 for the Child myki, 0001 for the Adult, 0002 for the Concession and 0003 for the Seniors. This may need to be revised as further cards from other regions are obtained. The rear of all cards features a stylised outline motif, whose theme (loosly speaking) is Victorian transport and Myki conneting communities and regions. Myki cards have an estimated life span of around four years. |
Child (CH) and Concession (C) sleeve |
Adult card |
Child, Concession and Seniors card |
The other component of the Myki system is the thin, blue, "Short term ticket" which is the only fare authority sold by bus drivers. These are encoded (made live) when issued, and as they allow transfer to another vehicle within the time allowed must be touched off when leaving the bus so as to be recognised by the reader on the next service. Drivers know the short term tickets as "soft cards". There is only the one type of short term ticket which is encoded for either full or concession fare. These tickets are provided as a joined strip which drivers can separate as required. It is anticipated that the short term tickets will also be available as a daily fare ticket from early April which should further reduce onboard transactions. The ticket numbers seen so far follow the sequence: 04 D2 xx xx xx 02 80, where the outer two groups of two numbers remain constant whilst the central three groups of two numbers alter. |
This short term ticket was sacrificed in the name of science to expose the inner conductive loop. |
Bus hardwareEach bus is fitted with three card readers ("fare payment devices") - one on to the right of the front entrance for touching on and off, and one on each side of the rear entrance for touching off. These readers require brief placement of a Myki card within a few millimetres of the blue target are for card recognition. Each reader has a screen that provides visual credit and debit information. We have used an image from the Myki information booklet to illustrate the process. |
Publicising MykiThere were three types of printed publicity material that we know of associated with the launch of Myki in Geelong (apart from newspaper articles). The first item was a fold out pamphlet which was letterbox dropped. The front cover and inside flap could be varied for Myki launches in other regions but the bulk of the informatiom inside was arranged in a fixed form and suitable for Myki elswhere.The most comprehensive printed item is a 15 page booklet with an attached, multi panel Myki registration form. It also includes two Geelong region bus route maps but otherwise it too is arranged in a generic format suitable for other regions. Another form of publicity is the double panel "myki is here" leaflet. This form of publicity may have been unique to Geelomg ? Another feature of the Geelong launch, and of all upcoming launches, are the roving "Myki mates". Initially these were off duty bus drivers until the Transport Ticketing authority (TTA) advertised for specific positions for approximately 20 rovers for Geelong. The Myki mates can be recognised by their distinctive light blue tops. |