Victoria's Public Transport Is The Worst I've Experienced. EVER

Hotpotcorn on 30/03/2018 - 20:28
Last edited 31/03/2018 - 19:51 by 2 other users

Victoria's public transport is a joke. I've only just noticed how freaking behind we are compared to some of the countries I've traveled to over the past few years. I can list so many things wrong with this current public transport. let's start.

  • Often train delays during the peak times, I know metro posts punctuality reports every month but what you really should post is the punctuality % during peak times, cause thats what really matters most. I bet that's not even above 50%.

  • Often train closures/bus replacements if they need to upgrade their infrastructure(or level crossing removal works) or if something emergency happened. literally, there are bus replacements somewhere in the network every day throughout the year. NOT TO MENTION THIS ALSO..(this is not the first time it has done that btw) In other countries I've been to, such as (Japan, China, US, Hongkong, Singapore) and even all of the poorer countries I've been to such as Thailand, there is no such thing as BUS REPLACEMENTS. you will never see buses replacing trains, all their trains run perfectly every day, and their train/metro network will not get stupid computer glitches that will shut their entire network down for several hours.

  • the lack of platform doors in Australia- pretty much ALL the stations in the countries I've been to have platform safety doors installed on every single platform, every single train/metro station. while I understand we don't have as much population density compared to the Asian countries, but the ones in Melbourne CBD should have them installed in my opinion since they can get really populated at times.

  • Their productivity rate is so slow….. they are building new stations in the CBD and it will take like 7 years for them to complete 5 stations, (they say it will be completed by 2025, but I HIGHLY doubt it. similar to how I HIGHLY doubt the NBN will be finished before 2020.) For your reference, it took 3 years for Shanghai to build the new line 17 which consists of 12 stations.

  • THE MOST ANNOYING THING OF ALL- OUR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CARD MYKI. ITS LITERALLY THE MOST TRASHIEST THING IVE EVER USED. Firstly, especially on buses, the response rate of these 500-year-old machines are so slow! you put your myki on and it takes on average like 5 whole seconds for it to recognise the card, and sometimes it just simply would not work, so not only you waste all that time trying to touch on, I would assume the bus drivers won't be happy about it either since they will be running behind schedule(it will all add up). of course they do have new machines in the city where they are instant but literally, every other machine that's out of the cbd theres a massive delay.

  • Secondary you cant touch on with your myki with any material that's in its way(including the new ones in the city), therefore you have to literally take out your myki everytime you touch on and touch off. which is very inconvenient. I put my myki in a card holder behind my phone and its literally like 1cm thick and it does not recognise my myki at all….. In every other country ive been to, you can touch on your transportation card without taking it out. I once had my Shanghai public transportation card buried inside my handbag and just leaned it against the sensor- and BAM- it touches me on. i was genuinely surprised by the sensitivity. thirdly, some countries like China and parts of Europe you can use your iPhone's wallet app to touch on and touch off with your card. that is the ultimate dream of where you want to head to. but I know this will probably not gonna get introduced in Australia in my entire life probably.

There are many other issues with our current transportation system such as the high fares and the lack of airport rail, but these are the ones that mainly annoy me. I would assume there are many other Victorians or even people from other states that have similar thoughts as me. I would love to hear everyone's complaints and thoughts about this current public transport not just victoria but other states.. You are also welcome to criticize me on the things I'm saying wrong.

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Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 31/03/2018 - 21:20

    Doesn’t Dan the Man get the boot this year?

    • OzzyOzbourne on 31/03/2018 - 21:42
      +3

      Only to be replaced by another wookfit

      • [Deactivated] on 31/03/2018 - 22:43
        +1

        Yep. All aboard the merry go round.

        • khomeini on 31/03/2018 - 23:47
          +2

          IMO The only way to get "good" public transport system/infrastructure is by ensuring that politicians and all those in the public sector have to take the public system - no more rorts by having private chauffeur driven cars.

          If they do this, they can pay for it from their own pockets - a hope that will sadly never eventuate.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 00:42
      +3

      If you think that the Libs will do anything to improve public transport, you've got to be out of your god damn mind

  • netsurfer on 31/03/2018 - 21:24

    Buses and trams in Victoria are far worse. I found Sydney trains better. They don't have the city loop goes one way in the morning, but the other way in the afternoon rubbish.

  • Dont Care on 31/03/2018 - 21:42
    +2

    OP says he has only just realised. Where has his head been until now??

  • John678 on 31/03/2018 - 21:46

    Trains on Hurstbridge always late in peak.

    The worst thing is Metro aren’t meeting their targets and still not getting fined.

  • Wallyt99 on 31/03/2018 - 23:20
    -4

    Be happy or GTFO. There are so many people who would give their left testi to live in Melbourne.

  • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 00:28
    +7

    I'm no fan of Labor (or Liberal) but to be fair, the current government currently has a projects underway to solve practically everything you listed, unlike previous governments who haven't invested anything into it (just extracted money for their mates by privatising and Myki).

    1) Delays -

    a. Metro Tunnel project will make more lines through-running so that delays don't knock onto other lines

    b. High Capacity Signalling project will make trains able to safely run closer together so the trains will become so frequent that a minor delay wouldn't even be noticeable.

    c. Level Crossing removal projects will prevent delays due to level crossing collisions, and also allow High Capacity Signalling work to its full potential without needing bigger gaps between trains to allow road traffic to cross through the line.

    2) Bus Replacements -

    a. Other countries have already been upgraded to the standard we are striving for. How are we supposed to upgrade without any line closures?

    b. Skyrail is being used to minimise disruption, it takes way longer to dig/tunnel during which time the line needs to be closed. This way, the trains can mostly keep running while it is still being built.

    c. I live near level crossing removal works and honestly they did their best to schedule it outside of peak times as much as possible and were fairly organised with the bus replacements. Some days were painful, but no pain no gain, once it's finished then we will just be like the other countries.

    d. Full system outages will be less likely with High Capacity Signaling, as part of this project is to split out the Control Centres into 3 rather than just one. At worst, 1/3 of the system goes down if there is a Control Centre issue until another control centre can take over.

    3) Platform Doors -

    a. Already slated for Metro Tunnel project which will only use the new dedicated HCMT rolling stock.

    b. Currently it is not feasible due to a mishmash of different rolling stock, not all the doors would line up properly.

    4) Construction Speed

    a. You are comparing the speed to construct an elevated railway compared to underground. And who cares if it takes a little longer? The construction of these new underground stations barely have any impact on commuters because they are NEW routes. I would trust the word of engineers who decided this is the best way and gives taxpayers value for money.

    5) Myki

    a. Is a pile of dog shit, thanks to a previous Labor government

    b. At least the new machines which read faster are being rolled more and more until the old ones are completely replaced.

    c. NFC mobile payments (including with Smartphones) instead of using Myki cards is coming soon.

    d. Personally I would rather public transport become free to encourage more usage since it is so heavily subsidised anyway and collecting fares cost an obscene amount of money as it is. At least give discounted/free off-peak rates to encourage less crowding, and fairer ticketing options which scales with the amount of distance you actually travel.

    6) Insensitive Mykis

    a. Maybe solved with the NFC mobile payments. Wait and see, otherwise suck it up.

    7) Airport rail

    Again, project in the works for that. But it's going to be expensive as shit because of the Taxi/Skybus/Uber lobby. I would much rather Doncaster Rail which would actually be useful to more people. There is a Doncaster Busway in the works which is a stop gap until rail, but they really need rail.

  • El Grande on 01/04/2018 - 00:35
    +1

    I hate how you have to buy MYKI for people visiting from overseas or interstate. It's $6 down the drain per person as I always forget to get the MYKI back.

    I travelled to New Delhi a couple of years ago. They have MYKI type coins you can have your fare topped onto for infrequent users. Say $0.50 fare from Station X to Y. You get a coin for $0.50. You tap to touch on with the coin (just like MYKI) and you insert the coin into the machine when exiting (the machine keeps them for the station to sell for the next time). Why could we not do that here. It's the same tech just a slightly different machine.

    • Emerald Owl on 02/04/2018 - 13:35
      +1

      Or just make the card free like in Sydney.

  • Lancerx on 01/04/2018 - 01:00

    Wait till you come to WA, it's almost non-existence in its current format..plus you almost always need to have car to take train..weird huh..

  • TigerWoops on 01/04/2018 - 01:13
    +1

    Myki is shit but PTV users are shit too especially in buses. I bet 1/2 bus users dont pay the fare. They just jump on and jump off the bus as a free shuttle bus. School kids are worst. In school buses most of them enjoy free ride and even they never have a Myki cards.

    Myki cards are slow as Myki system is based on Windows 95. Can you believe it? Windows 95 is used for the base system and it costs at least 1.5 billian dollars to develop the software and hardware from scratch.

    • El Grande on 01/04/2018 - 02:56

      I highly doubt that. The drivers watch people like a hawk until they touch on.

      • Sage on 01/04/2018 - 10:23

        The drivers watch people like a hawk until they touch on.

        You can clearly see when they don't touch on though. In my experience and JamesPark's experience the bus driver doesn't do anything.
        Do you see them demand the commuter to touch on before the bus drives off?

        • TigerWoops on 01/04/2018 - 11:56

          The bus drivers can do nothing and are told do nothing and just drive the bus cos they are drivers not ticket inspector. Also too many people dont touch on so they cannot handle all the free riders.

        • El Grande on 01/04/2018 - 23:49

          They watch you touch on. Never really noticed anyone try to not pay. Maybe they should have a door that only lets you in once you touch on.

    • ChemicalMan on 01/04/2018 - 10:22

      The MyKi readers actually run on Windows CE

      • pennypincher98 on 04/04/2018 - 20:21

        The Opal (NSW) top up machines run on Windows CE also, which is an absolute nightmare sometimes trying to reload it.
        At least there's not normally a queue as everyone is getting it topped up elsewhere. They are borderline unusable sometimes - and shut down randomly…

    • techhead on 04/04/2018 - 18:14

      It actually runs Windows CE (Think the old Windows Mobile, those stylus based PDA things before Windows phone)

      *source, photos I took of various devices booting up. The new readers and the top-up machines might vary.

  • FogAndSteel on 01/04/2018 - 01:21
    +2

    Sydney buses show up 5 min early (mostly empty) or roll by 15 min late and completely packed. Never on time.

  • R-Man on 01/04/2018 - 02:24

    Can't agree with many of your complaints. Touching on myki never takes more than 2 seconds (that is the worst case).

    One huge complaint I have against metro is how getting into flinders st station, the train always stops during peak morning to 'wait for a platform to be available'. ???? you had one job Metro? have platforms ready at your most major station??? organise your network??? But when I complained about this, they told me that a train is not considered late unless it is 5 minutes late. So my complaint is not valid because i'm never 300 or more seconds late, so what's currently happening is fine. They gave me a list of farfetched excuses why a platform might not be available (tresspassers they reckon)

    To ease platform congestion, I also suggested that Myki staff members encourage users to touch their myki at the gate as soon as the previous person removes theirs. That way the gate stays open, each person moves through 1-2 seconds quicker which really adds up for those at the back of the queue and on platforms. Metro said no. They said even though the technology and hardware allows this, they can't encourage it because it's the same as fare evading (no different, 100% the same, equivalent to theft).

  • FatBlanket on 01/04/2018 - 08:33

    I agree, Victoria's transport system is a joke. Australia only seems to be good at building roads. It's sad really. I'm always confused at those who defend it. It's been crap since I've been using it for the last twenty years. I mostly use my car to get around now. Overseas I didn't even have a car and I was happy as Larry.

    • OzzyOzbourne on 04/04/2018 - 11:44
      +1

      Disagree about the roads, they are a joke too.

  • gimme on 01/04/2018 - 09:14

    So another person suffering from holiday blues.

  • DoyA on 01/04/2018 - 09:29

    Visiting NSW will change your mind.

  • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 09:49

    Your brilliant knowledge is wasted here, take it directly to PTV and help the people

  • Cheapsize on 01/04/2018 - 10:03

    Melbourne literally has the best public transport of any major Australian city. So I say this because we can't compare to Japan or other cities way too advanced. I go to Japan to holiday for a reason (to see public transport Utopia)

    Metro just can't get peak hour right. You can take a Frankston train from Southern cross and at Flinders St it could randomly change to another line and its not announced unless you peak outside at the screen. The fact that's happening on a regular basis and huge delays to wait for platforms at Flinders at Southern Cross make the commute fairly stressful. You have to budget 1.5 hours for a commute from Chelsea with express trains and its a 45 min trip.

  • nowlan on 01/04/2018 - 10:48

    I noticed some new touch on thing on some buses. Big LCD, with a ring that lights green, and is really fast compared to the old one wiht the 3 leds at the top.

    But they buses are hit and miss lately. Thought it was due to school starting up, but is bad every week. Either late, non-existant, or 2 at once.

  • fallentenshi on 01/04/2018 - 11:33

    Only annoying thing with PTV is when they skip the loop whenever they are late. Sometime you get announcement that says " we are on time with only few minutes late"! Either you are on time or you're late… can't be both. Also many equipment faults and ppl jumping infront of trains.. hmm…. oh yea if we have heat and rain, the train won't work either. >.<

    My Myki is fine, no problem with it at all. And Melbourne train ticket (daily) price is more reasonable than Sydney. Sydney's ticketing is confusing. So many variables and if you also take bus to get to train station, that's extra cost.

    I think melbourne train needs to connect with each other more, so it's easier to change Lines b4 you hit the CBD. But yeah, Melb transportation aint going to change drastically in the future. We don't have the budget for it.

    For me, going to work in CBD by train is alot better than driving!

  • rith on 01/04/2018 - 12:26

    My main gripe is that the free zone ends just before the MCEC.

  • treeman on 01/04/2018 - 12:35

    Clearly never used Adelaide's public transport!

  • luminousfox on 01/04/2018 - 14:07
    +2

    I'd trade all of those things being fixed if who got on was policed better, i take the tram from Richmond to chapel street and not a single day in 2 years has there not been some piece of human garbage druggie/white trash/homeless/drunk or just general (profanity) who thinks the tram is their home and somehow manages to take up 4 seats with their feet and backpacks.

    I've been harassed,threatened with violence and to top it off i pay a full fair almost $9 ticket for the privileged, all the while some (profanity) gets a free ride. Of course the tram driver will never do anything, and even when there's ticket inspectors they all scatter like cockroaches,sometimes they just stay because they know the inspectors are too chicken shit to fine them or tell them to leave, but god forbid some ordinary person or tourist or young girl doesn't have a valid myki, suddenly you've got 4 inspectors boxing you in making sure you get that fine.

    Then when something finally gets done about making people feel safe from all the druggies its only on train stations in the form of "stand in this spray painted yellow line with cameras and we can film you getting stabbed"

    People keep using japan as the epitome of perfect public transport in regards to their performance, but i wish at least we could get the respect people give each other while riding, everyone is dead silent and mindful of each other, and i think if we at least had that, all the other issues wouldn't be as so bad.

  • rian354252 on 01/04/2018 - 14:19
    +1

    My main gripe about the PTV is the D class trams that run on routes 1,3,5,6,16,64,67 as I take them daily.
    It's as if the trams were designed to make it uncomfortable/inconvenient for passengers on purpose.
    The seats that face each other on the ends of the trams have such little space that it's impossible for the two people to both have their feet directly in front of them. This forces one person to be on their tiptoes so the other person can have theirs flat or one person has to put their feet on the side into the standing area.
    On top of this, there's no space to put your belongings if you sit on those seats, and if you try to put things on the little platform, it will just slide off cause they're angled just enough to keep things off. [who the f designed these??]
    The seats that face the driver ends of the tram are also annoying as the outer seats are partly covered by the side wall forcing passengers to sit on an angle and taking up the space of the adjacent seat.
    Oh and don't forget the seats that face the middle of the tram that has a glass barrier right in front of it leaving only 20cm of legroom. It would actually be more convenient if these seats didn't exist to accommodate more people during peak hour.

    Am I the only one who's extremely bothered by their design?

  • pennypincher98 on 01/04/2018 - 15:32
    +1

    Does your public transport network go into meltdown every day because some train is a few minutes late?
    How about the fact they are planning to close down your station for 7 months but haven't told you when yet?
    Or maybe the fact that there are trains from the late 70's that only come once an hour? And when the trains come there are no space anyway? Then stations get overflowed and closed down and people get violent?
    Where buses aren't even a viable option because they either go on strike or get stuck in a sh*tload of traffic? Would you like your bus 10 minutes early or 15 minutes late? How about 2 at once where neither want to stop for you?

    Happy Monday.
    Welcome to Transport NSW, where we like to give all our customers a test of character.

  • Rubi on 01/04/2018 - 16:14

    what are you really angry about?

  • scorpiosony on 01/04/2018 - 16:23
    +1

    Way better than Adelaide Metro

  • DiscoJango on 01/04/2018 - 17:22
    +1

    i too have been to japan, and their public transport system just…works. they have just nailed it. so easy, so quick, so efficient. its almost perfect world scenario. coming back to melbourne felt like being in horse and carriage days.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 18:52
      -1

      See my comment below.

  • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 18:51
    -2

    you find it shit cause Oz has 24 mil pop vs a huge country and infrastructure.

    Puts almost every other country to shame. Compare Japan, about 50% more land than victoria with 130mil population, china 1.5b pop, etc etc etc.

    Do the maths and wake up mate.

    • Hotpotcorn on 01/04/2018 - 19:06
      -2

      how does having a less population density make a difference of the tech of the myki machines?

      • Geryatric on 03/04/2018 - 09:08

        Something called cost and return on investment

    • DiscoJango on 01/04/2018 - 22:21
      -4

      Pop is something you do to pimples. I've never once seen someone abbreviate population to pop.

  • Ryxxi on 01/04/2018 - 19:27

    Dont forget about how slow trans are and the drivers wait at some stoos for like 5-10mins for no reason…

  • DingoBilly on 01/04/2018 - 20:45
    -1

    As others have rightly pointed out, Melbourne is far better set up than other states like ACT, QLD etc., let alone other countries which have outright dangerous and disgusting conditions.

    Perhaps you need to travel more to appreciate it for what it is, and stop being so self-entitled?

  • p1 ama on 01/04/2018 - 20:48
    +9

    I'm a lifelong Melbournian, I've been catching Melbourne public transport since I was in high school, so let me give my opinion. This is pretty far down, so I don't know whether it will get seen, but I hope that it gives some counter-balance to the argument.

    I've only just noticed how freaking behind we are compared to some of the countries I've traveled to over the past few years.

    You're not comparing like with like. Most of the places you're referring to have far greater population densities than Melbourne. The truth is that there is simply no way we can have a system that looks like most of the places you're thinking about where you have over 10x the population density of Australia in an area about the size of Victoria.

    literally, there are bus replacements somewhere in the network every day throughout the year.

    That's a complete lie and hyperbole and you know it. I used to catch the train every single working day. I had a bus replacement no more than several times per year.

    In other countries I've been to, such as (Japan, China, US, Hongkong, Singapore) and even all of the poorer countries I've been to such as Thailand, there is no such thing as BUS REPLACEMENTS.

    Yes, so you would rather there be no replacements at all.

    All their trains run perfectly every day

    And how long did you stay there? Trains in Melbourne have been pretty good over the past two weeks.

    the lack of platform doors in Australia

    Why is this a problem? How likely are you to actually fall off the platform. Again, hyperbole.

    Their productivity rate is so slow….. they are building new stations in the CBD and it will take like 7 years for them to complete 5 stations. For your reference, it took 3 years for Shanghai to build the new line 17 which consists of 12 stations.

    Yes, because building a complex underground tunnel in quite poor land quality whilst avoiding current existing tunnels and also not disrupting the CBD is comparable to building a new train line. Again, overlooking really important differences.

    There are many other issues with our current transportation system such as the high fares

    High fares? Are you (profanity) kidding me? You can travel literally from one end of the outer fringes of Melbourne to the other end for less than $5. You could live in Pakenham, over 50km away from the city and get there and back every day for less than $8.

    To sum up, I agree with you on some points. For example, Myki is not the best thing in the world. But your entire post is just ranting and raving and full of exaggerated hyperbole that I can't really take you seriously. Are there problems with Melbourne's train network? Sure, but is it as bad as you're trying to say it is? Not at all. As always, there's some level of nuance in this. Most of the issues with Melbourne's train system stem from the fact that it's simply an old system with old technology that's very difficult to upgrade. You're comparing trains in Melbourne to lines in many areas which were still very primitive when the Melbourne rail system was introduced. Maybe it's hard to believe, but when it was built, it was world-leading.

    Whilst you're passionate, I don't think you understand enough about the train system to know why you see the problems you do. The most volatile part of Melbourne's train network is the signalling system. Train drivers simply do not know where other trains are and all of the signalling for the entire network is done in one place, meaning that if that place is knocked out, that can flow on to the entire network. Upgrading to digital signalling will help solve a large part of that issue.

    • JuryWheel on 02/04/2018 - 10:16
      +3

      Well said mate. I don’t use it every day but have never thought it was terrible. Of course if can’t compare to Tokyo or Singapore, but we are very different. Bus replacements are only happening due to improvements/upgrades which have to be a good thing surely. Myki is the weak link….

  • jno on 02/04/2018 - 00:19
    +4

    Tired of the "should be grateful compared insert city/state line. Just because public transport sucks in every other state it shouldn't be an excuse for victoria to be slack

  • jtroy on 02/04/2018 - 01:54
    +1

    The train is free if you travel and touch on and off before 7:15am

  • [Deactivated] on 02/04/2018 - 04:49
    +7

    I lived in Melbourne for about 4 years from 2013, grew up in Sydney (and lived there for a couple of years from 2011), in between lived or live UK, Japan, US.

    Melbourne's public transport in all aspects really is diabolically bad. 'Low' population density is no excuse at all, has anyone gone to a house auction or rental inspection and looked at the scores of people battling for shelter? Or have you experienced the daily invasion of personal space on pretty much any train line during peak hour as they are crammed beyond capacity? We have the density in spades now, just zero planning. Pollies have cranked immigration to 11 just to prop up property markets with no commensurate planning under the naive notion that all this growth just comes for free.

  • techhead on 02/04/2018 - 05:55
    +2

    Agree it's generally pretty bad but don't agree with many of your reasons. Myki was a stuff up, let's admit it but there are major recent improvements. The first readers were a joke. New readers are as quick as any worldwide system, the reason they detect multiple cards is because they are compatible with debit cards and this feature is "coming soon". The top-up machines are much quicker than they used to be! Cost is a tricky one. Basically those going short distances pay the highest price worldwide bar Wellington and those going to Pakenham/Tarneit " growth suburbs" are heavily subsidised as are daily cap tourists (a good thing)

    Carriage design is a major sore point. Really bad layout, either not enough grab handles, badly placed (xtrapolis) dangerous (trams green anchors) or way too many and endless bars in the way of passenger movements.

    The state of the trains are generally well kept but trams, transdev buses and vline are terribly maintained with graffiti all over them and a clear lack of a cleaning programme.

    Station design is another fall over area, (look at the new stations with form over function roof that are so high and slanted they do little against rain and sun from poor shelter against elements, lack o heating (a radiant heater would be paid for by a single billboard ad) also the flow is I'll thought out. Passengers need to generally enter at the middle of the station rather than having openings at each end.

    Tram reliability is affected by poor maintainence of the fleet but mainly due to terrible traffic movement (lights) causing major tram delays. Clearways are not enforced well either.
    Train reliability is caused by Metro wanting to fiddle figures and they'll terminate a through train and have terrible communication generally.

    Vline mainly service reductions, cancellations and of late, major fleet reliability. They are the only ones that are honestnand generally communicate why or what.

    Bus replacements are a fact of life. Melbourne needs to expand majorly so a not of pain is a lot of gain. Many places don't have trains or especially trams so a bus is a downgrade but still a solution.

    This is all my OPINION so don't take it as fact.

  • ExtraSalt on 02/04/2018 - 07:57

    No it's not perfect but be grateful for what you have. You can walk out of most any Cafe in the city, and there is a bus/train/tram waiting for you. Is PTV that bad that you had to write a short novel about it?

  • Melong on 02/04/2018 - 08:35

    Dodgy infrastructure is the result of this antiquated democractic system where politicians’ only agenda is to be re-elected, consequently there is an abundance of over promising and under delivering. Politicians are lawyers and not experts in their portfolios.

    • DiscoJango on 02/04/2018 - 08:46
      +1

      Ozbargain logic: let's compare a first world country's systems to a 3rd worlds. Shut up and don't complain! Be grateful! Fact of the matter is, melbourne is an amazing place to live. We have the best drinking water, heaps of open space, lots to see and do, plenty of jobs… with a stunningly bad public transport system, which does get upgraded, but always too late. Kinda like the parent who finally buys their child a PlayStation 3, except that the PlayStation 4 came out 2 years earlier.

    • Emerald Owl on 02/04/2018 - 13:37

      Yes democracy is so antiquated

  • Excelsior on 02/04/2018 - 14:22
    +1

    Don't forget we're missing a direct train to the airport (SkyBus doesn't count).

  • Dont Care on 02/04/2018 - 18:31

    just move interstate. with the exception of Sydney, there are plenty of affordable cities

    • DiscoJango on 04/04/2018 - 08:16
      +1

      With no jobs and low pay

      • Dont Care on 08/04/2018 - 09:12

        try upskilling at Tafe or Uni

  • Geryatric on 02/04/2018 - 20:28
    +2

    All countries have bus replacement services. I have caught them in Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Europe. It’s called maintenance.

  • McFly on 02/04/2018 - 21:17
    +2

    If Myki isn't the worst large IT project in the history of the world it must be not far off it.

    • Powershopz on 03/04/2018 - 00:41
      +2

      NBN

      • McFly on 03/04/2018 - 01:08

        Well, NBN is MUCH larger and much more complex.

        • Powershopz on 03/04/2018 - 07:23
          +2

          The most infuriating thing about Myki is that there were perfectly good working systems they could of simply adopted and implemented from overseas. Even Perth had rolled out their smart card system a few years earlier which they could have used. However then politics gets in the way - "bah! humbug! we're not copying another state opposition's system". "We'll build our own system, with blackjack and hookers".

          They decided to build the majority of the system from scratch which resulted in a project that took 7 years to roll out and cost 950M to implement (initial budget was 300M). London Oyster card was quoted to cost $300M to roll out.

        • tevtin on 04/04/2018 - 20:20

          @Powershopz: if you look into this more, you will actually find that corruption occurred when Kamco won the contract for Myki. Hundreds of millions went missing and has still not been accounted for.

    • Geryatric on 03/04/2018 - 09:09

      NBN, Opal

      • McFly on 03/04/2018 - 10:16

        NBN - already addressed.
        Opal - best thing since sliced bread compared to Myki.

  • antzz on 03/04/2018 - 00:16

    You have not got enough experience if you said that.

  • YoursTruly on 03/04/2018 - 02:34

    Victoria's public transport is a joke. I've only just noticed how freaking behind we are compared to some of the countries I've traveled to over the past few years

    Mate, obviously you haven’t been to any part of Africa. No sense of time or personal space over at their “public transport” (if you can call it that) sytem.

  • berry580 on 03/04/2018 - 03:41

    It is all down to economies of scale. Large geographic landscape and relatively small amount of passenger frequency guarantees an operational loss.

    Be grateful that there is public transport at all which is subsidied by the government.

    • OzzyOzbourne on 04/04/2018 - 11:49
      +1

      Where do the government get their money from?

  • devs on 03/04/2018 - 09:30

    If I'm not mistaken, Myki uses RFID and not NFC, which means that in its current implementation, there's no way it can be easily switched over to be used via smartphones. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

    • McFly on 03/04/2018 - 10:16

      Yes, you're wrong - Myki uses two cans and a piece of string.

  • dealsucker on 03/04/2018 - 11:38
    +2

    Victoria public transport is mostly okay but my pet peeve remains transit times. I dont mind train delays if the bus time table also aligns with that delay automatically. The scenario that plays out regularly is train is supposed to arrive at 06:00 PM and the bus is to leave at 06:05 PM, fair game but no! The train is delayed by 5 minutes or more (happens with shocking reliability), but the bus does not wait. So the train reaches at 06:06 and the bus has already left. You will say take the next bus which is fine except for the fact that the next bus is at 06:25! A full 20 minute wait because the bus drive did not wait for an extra couple of minutes. Gets me everytime it happens to this day.

    P.S. I do not expect Japanese level reliability and punctuality from our public transport. There can only be one Japan, a homogeneous society still, where everyone from the driver of the train to people who board and disembark from the train, everyone contributes to it being so good. All you need is a trespasser in Victoria to grind the whole system to a halt.

  • stemcell on 03/04/2018 - 11:48

    Poster whinging about Melbourne's train system lol, come to Tasmania and try out our public train network.

  • ganymede on 03/04/2018 - 12:04

    Melbourne PT is a joke especially the rail, feels like Delhi rail without the crowd. I don't understand why (e.g. a tourist) can't buy a one way ticket and must purchase Myki.

    The condition of the rail is just horrible, uneven and windy, I don't think the current rail can handle 30+ trains an hour i.e. once every 2 mins like Hong Kong, Singapore or similar sized city in Japan.

    • McFly on 03/04/2018 - 12:38

      Yeah, making tourists (or anyone for that matter) go through the whole Myki circus when they arrive and just want to hop on a quick tram ride is a pathetic joke.

  • ganymede on 03/04/2018 - 15:48
    +1

    The Victorian rail system is probably from the Victorian era. :p

    • OzzyOzbourne on 04/04/2018 - 11:49

      It's got worse since then

  • poohduck on 03/04/2018 - 17:17

    As a traveller, I found it pretty straight forward

  • xiuhan83 on 04/04/2018 - 08:14

    surely you havent been to india

    • ganymede on 04/04/2018 - 11:51

      Comparing one of the world most liveable city to India? Really?

  • cycleri3 on 04/04/2018 - 15:37

    In other countries I've been to, such as (Japan, China, US, Hongkong, Singapore)

    Stopped reading at US.

  • Bismar on 04/04/2018 - 16:52

    As someone who takes the trams on St Kilda road I am constantly frustrated at tram drivers who do not stop during peak hour when they think their tram is full.

    There is never enough trams on the route and IMO they should either rip out all but disabled seating or install a massive travelator on the dedicated tram strip. Also wish I have a hover board and tractor beam like in UT3 that I can latch onto a tram rear as it inevitably goes rolling past.

    • tevtin on 04/04/2018 - 20:10

      Trams should be abolished, they are an 1800's technology and cannot support a population of a modern day city. Underground train stations need to be built to replace trams and then roads need to be widened to support more cars (Single lane 40 km/h roads in the cbd is a joke). Footpaths need to be widened and laws adjusted to allow cyclists to ride on footpaths away from the danger of cars. Everybody wins.

  • Godric on 04/04/2018 - 17:23

    Tbh i think our network is pretty good, only issue is having to pay $350 every 2 months for my Myki, just too much

    And my line has no express train so 50min ish train ride

  • Baysew on 04/04/2018 - 17:30
    +1

    If you think your commute is tough

  • uiriamu on 04/04/2018 - 18:55

    First world problems. Lived in Melbourne all my life and am ok with the odd delay. Please spam your neg votes on me, show me your frustration, feed me your tears =D

    • tevtin on 04/04/2018 - 20:00

      Yes agree it is first world problems but there is no harm in wanting to improve the countries infrastructure for the future generations. Japan/korea didn't make their infrastructure advancements by sitting around and accepting "OK" technology. They strive for perfection and continuously improve. This is the biggest difference between Australia and Japan/Korea/Singapore and why we will always be a step behind.

  • pennypincher98 on 05/04/2018 - 08:48

    Just an update on what happened this morning - the train was supposed to stop at a station but didn't and the guard failed to realise this for 15 minutes and then stopped at a random station that was 20 mins away from where they should've stopped..

    NSW TrainLink amazes me sometimes.

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