Deficiencies in Accounting for MyWay Canberra Bus Tickets

Several weeks ago I sent Canbeera's government owned ACTION bus company two old magnetic stripe tickets to have the usnused portion credited to my new "My Way" smart card bus ticket. Today I received an email from the MyWay Administration office saying this has been done. I used the "check your balance" page to check this had been done (which it had). But curiously the email was vague about when the transaction had happened, saying "Beetween the 20th - 24th". This did not match the date reported by the online system, which was 02/06/2011. The funds appear to be unaccounted for, over a period of a week.

Also the misspelling of "Beetween" in what must be an email sent out to thousands of people is of concern. This suggests that the MyWay system has not been implemented with the care needed for a system handling millions of dollars.

Simplifying the Myki ticket system

Media reports indicate that the new Victorian government is considering scrapping or modifying the Myki transport ticket system. The contact-less smart card system has had problems with capacity.

MyKi was modified so that most tram commuter do not need to "touch off" the card at the end of their journey. It is likely this change would be extended to short journeys in other transport modes. This will make the system more like Istanbul's Akbil electronic ticketing system, which simply charges a fixed amount for a journey.

Canberra's ACT government run ACTION bus system is introducing a "MyWay" smart card touch on - touch off system. This was due to commence in the second half of 2010. The card readers have been installed on buses, but tickets have not yet been issued. This is resulting in a loss of revenue, as some buses have had the old ticket system replaced with MyWay, resulting in passengers with old tickets getting a free ride.