Remember who is in charge, people. More tollways/tunnels, less public transport ("summer" timetables) in one hand, and in the other, close down Holden, Ford and Toyota and jump LP gas up to $1.00/l.

Looks like I will be only touching on during Early Bird hours and after 6. Until both Early Birds and the 6PM-3AM "2 hour" period are scrapped - I can almost guarantee that is on their todo list.

Which will no doubt catch a lot of the Great Unwary out and cause the Authorised Officers to rub their hands in glee.

That "free time" of up to 59 minutes has existed for very many years and is another arguably sly cut in the benefits offered to users in the name of making Myki more efficient.

It shouldn't make any difference to AOs, who would still see a touched-on card.  The difference is that the user would be charged an all day fare, instead of a two hour one.

The up to 59 minutes extra existed in Metcard, and was carried over....  until now.

It existed before Metcard.

A paper ticket issued by a tram connie was clipped for two hours starting at the next hour.  You had up to 59 minutes free.  And you had unlimited travel if it was clipped at or after 6pm until 2am or close of service which ever came sooner.

The night "curfew" became 3am in more recent years.

Just curious, how long does it take a fare change to filter through the Myki reader system? Not that I'm complaining but twice this past week on a bus and again on a tram my Myki account was credited by 0.8c to push my Zone 1 two-hourly fare back to $3.50. It happened after I complete one trip which charges me $3.58. Then on a subsequent tram or bus when I touch off the 0.8c has been credited. Seems like a bit of a software glitch or maybe it takes a while for all reader to recognise the new fares?

With regards to the changes to mickey, the East-West tunnel is going to soak up all the spare money the state government has so they're going to make P/T more expensive - along with every other service. They need to do this to obsessively keep the AAA credit rating - to counter the problem of the E/W soaking up 9 or so billion.

I'd imagine that they have some more realistic financial advice about the prospect of private money backing up E/W and they've probably found out that nobody wants to touch it with a barge-pole.  A lot of merchant banks have been burnt with these ambitious PPP's lately and they've lost their appetite for them.

Removing the extra 59 minutes from a touch-on is a fare increase by stealth (in addition to the actual fare increases we've had anyway). They're not sympathetic to the losers who use public transport and they want to discourage them - that's less potential toll/fine targets out there on the roads for God's sake!

With regards to the changes to mickey, the East-West tunnel is going to soak up all the spare money the state government has so they're going to make P/T more expensive - along with every other service. They need to do this to obsessively keep the AAA credit rating - to counter the problem of the E/W soaking up 9 or so billion.

I'd imagine that they have some more realistic financial advice about the prospect of private money backing up E/W and they've probably found out that nobody wants to touch it with a barge-pole. A lot of merchant banks have been burnt with these ambitious PPP's lately and they've lost their appetite for them.

Removing the extra 59 minutes from a touch-on is a fare increase by stealth (in addition to the actual fare increases we've had anyway). They're not sympathetic to the losers who use public transport and they want to discourage them - that's less potential toll/fine targets out there on the roads for God's sake!

Actually $25 billion will be spent on the dud project. And that's $7 billion more than cleaning up Chernobyl in 1986 and more than twice the cost of WasteConnex in Sydney as well as the CBD relief Metro Rail Tunnel. I say always the most expensive road project in the world will all end up in Controversy just like the Cross-City Tunnel. Also you forgot to mention the 100% fare hike on weekends and the scrapping of Fare free days.

Actually $25 billion will be spent on the dud project.

What's your basis for $25 billion on East-West?

I don't like that project either but $25 billion seems a bit harsh to me.

With regards to the changes to mickey, the East-West tunnel is going to soak up all the spare money the state government has so they're going to make P/T more expensive - along with every other service. They need to do this to obsessively keep the AAA credit rating - to counter the problem of the E/W soaking up 9 or so billion.

I'd imagine that they have some more realistic financial advice about the prospect of private money backing up E/W and they've probably found out that nobody wants to touch it with a barge-pole. A lot of merchant banks have been burnt with these ambitious PPP's lately and they've lost their appetite for them.

Removing the extra 59 minutes from a touch-on is a fare increase by stealth (in addition to the actual fare increases we've had anyway). They're not sympathetic to the losers who use public transport and they want to discourage them - that's less potential toll/fine targets out there on the roads for God's sake!

The removing of the extra minutes from the 2 hour fare will just make the bus travel less attractive to the people and at the same time people like myself will just drive to locations like Chiffon Hill - so I can continue paying for a two hour fare.
The question with stage one of the East-West Link is not cost itself but does it create an alliterative to the M1 -aka the Westgate bridge?

In my view it's not an alliterative to the M1 -aka the West-gate bridge and at worst it would create a greater demand for the Westgate bridge because at the moment people travel east - west using Eastern Freeway and  also the Eastern Highway normal travel on the Princes Hwy to get to Princes Freeway.

If People use the stage 1 of the East - West Link and then travel to Citylink and then they may use Citylink to travel to Westgate Freeway and on to the Bridge and by this creating extra demand for the Westgate Bridge.

This isn't the right thread to be discussing the East-West upcoming debacle but for the sake of 'following the money' drained from P/T (and the functionality of myki) let's digress and discuss it for a moment.

As I see it there are two main targets for East-West. One is B-doubles and B-triples accessing the Eastern Fwy and the industrial parks along the tollway beyond Ringwood. This is probably the most solid market for the tunnel because trucks aren't as price-sensitive as private motorists... and if they can save two hours doubling back along the already congested Monash then it will be worth $20-$30 each way.

The second market is private motorists but because they've ruled out access off-ramps to the city (although this might change in the final design?) it's likely that people from the East trying to access the Tullamarine will be the biggest market for the tunnel. However at at projected $11 each way (and this was just the 'break even' price) I fear that we could be in for yet another 'tollway with overly-optimistic projections' problem after the actual launch. The fact that Transurban declined to get involved at any price should be your clue that this whole project stinks to high heaven and nobody in their right minds should be putting money into it.

These enormous extra subsidies that the project will ultimately require could be the extra costs that Some Rail Man was referring to... it could possibly end up being the most expensive white elephant road project in Australia on that basis.

And yes, I agree with you about the removal of the extra 59 minutes. It means that on a weekend when you might be tempted to go to the shops and have lunch down the street using a bus or a tram, there's a distinct danger that you'll run over 2 hours (it's a really short period of time to complete most return trips to your local area) so really it's designed to penalise people who might otherwise want to use PT for short trips... the very people that they should be targeting to try and get them in the habit of using the services available to them.

This gets to the core of the fundamental problem with the way that the myki system has been designed and deployed in its current form. It's been used as a tool to restrict PT use to regular users and to deter people who might otherwise have other options - namely, the use of their cars. It discriminates against out-of-town or occasional users by forbidding the use of cash.

Thread continued at: http://www.railpage.com.au/f-p1887120.htm#1887120