melbourne’s public transport consists of buses, trains and trams. the trams are concentrated in the ‘inner suburbs’ and the ‘cdb’ and the main one i use. think SF but more elaborate (both in the tram & the coverage of service).
i thought i had posted previously about the trams but i just searched my blog & didn’t find what i was looking for. there are several things i think suck about the tram service and the ticketing system lists right up there. most stops do not have a ticket machine (it’s rare to find one) but all trams have a ticket machine onboard. these machines only take change so god forbid you don’t have enough change. if you don’t, you’re expected to get off the tram, find change & then get back on. seems silly (esp as when i used to take the tram early in the AM, there are no shops or anything open between my house & my stop to get change). we were talking about this last nite at dinner & apparently when they first put the machines on the trams, the machines that accept bills were double the price of these so they went for the cheaper option.
there’s no gate or entry point on the trams where you need to show a ticket so lots of people do not pay for them. the only way they can enforce ticket purchasing is by having inspectors who randomly get on the tram & check your ticket. if you do not have a valid ticket, you get a fine. i’ve witnessed these many times and am often disturbed by the inspectors behaviour. enough that i’ve called and complained.
on the news yesterday was this story. 3 inspectors held down a skinny kid until the police arrived b/c the kid didn’t have a ticket & refused to give his name & address (which they require for the fine). this is standard procedure for them… the whole name/address, threatening with police. when i got a fine (about 18 m ago), they threatened repeatedly to call the police because i did not have any kind of identification with my AU address. but the whole physical restraint. amazingly horrible.
to complain, go here
to watch some mobile phone video, check here