Tourists taken for a ride on myki

The Opposition said the plan to remove all short-term tickets was unworkable. “Victoria will be one of the only places in the world that doesn’t offer a ticketing option for occasional public transport users and tourists,” public transport spokeswoman Fiona Richardson said.> > > > > The Tourism and Transport Forum, which represents hotel, tourism and transport operators, supported the move, saying there would be benefits to no short-term tickets in Melbourne. “It speeds up the transport network,” chief executive John Lee said. Buying a ticket on a bus took up to 35 seconds per transaction, he said.

via theage.com.au

It just gets worse and worse. Tourists will have no way to buy a single-use ticket once Metcard goes away.

The quote (above) from the Tourism and Transport Forum (whoever they are) is ridiculous: not buying tickets will speed up public transport. Yes, of course it will. Speed things up even more by not picking up passengers at all! The goal here shouldn’t be speed; the goal should be efficiency. We’re still patching a leaky boat here.