Adelaide's Public Transport digital future?

[jk1237]

Onto the serious stuff - definitely agree the single zone ticketing has to go. Inner suburban users subsidise the outer suburban people - why? Makes no sense for your trip to town from Norwood to cost the same as in from Gawler.

Go with more than two zones though - don't copy Melbun.

If you live in Norwood, Stepney or St Peters (hello) you would get a 2-section trip to town which is what I do. Its the middle suburbs subsidising the outer, such as Payneham, Enfield, Woodville, Plympton, Mitcham subsidising Tea Tree Gully, Salis/Eliz, Aldgate, Morphett Vale etc

[Vee]

Onto the serious stuff - definitely agree the single zone ticketing has to go. Inner suburban users subsidise the outer suburban people - why? Makes no sense for your trip to town from Norwood to cost the same as in from Gawler.
Go with more than two zones though

Agree. I live reasonably close to the city and the fares are expensive for the short distances travelled.

Even simple technologies to make public transport more accessible would be useful. Extend the electronic updates - time to next bus etc. at every stop (as well as updates on mobile devices). Free wifi is a bonus to travellers.

Why isn't the free intra city bus clearly differentiated with a totally different colour scheme? It's not easy for tourists, let alone residents, to spot the difference in the traffic. The single green solar bus is easy to spot and highlights its clean, green image.

Automated audio announcements (in several languages) and next 2 stops updated and displayed in easy to read screens proved to be lifesavers when travelling on the trains in France. We really need to better cater for visitors as well as residents.

[Aidan]

I honestly do not understand the frustration with our ticketing system. It rarely fails of its own accord (and even when it does, people are still able to continue their journey), and is only demonstrably disadvantageous when imbeciles are boarding.

Either I.

From experience, Paris's transport services use a system much the same as Adelaide's, while Stockholm (and other European cities) use a vastly inferior paper slip/stamp system. Though, to be fair, both also operate smart cards.

Warsaw has tickets that are physically similar to ours - despite the holographic security feature, they appear to be Crouzet. However, they have daily and weekly tickets.

I think the real problem with our present ticketing is that the system is approaching the end of its serviceable life.

I think the real problems are the requirement to validate each boarding, which slows everyone down, particularly on the trains, and the use of weak magnetic strips which are easily erased.

That it's approaching the end of its serviceable life is more an opportunity than a problem.

[muzzamo]

One area where Adelaide is doing quite well is in using google maps for public transport journey planning.

Forget about jnomad, install google maps mobile (or get an android or iphone) and journey planning is at your fingertips anywhere where you are (and you have 3g)

[Hindley Street Alley]

I think the current ticketing system has some major flaws:

- If you don't have a ticket and arrive at the bus with anything larger than a $10 note then you're pretty much stuffed unless you get an extremely nice bus driver who will let you on for nothing. This situation is even worse before the opening of shops, because you can't even go to a newsagent anywhere to buy a multitrip!!!
talk about inconvenience... especially for tourists and visitors (who we should be making things easy for as well as ourselves)

- the distance makes no difference... this is good for some, not good for others, and is inefficient overall imho.

For residents or visitors who want convenience and efficiency, I would like to see some kind of card, similar to a credit type card that we could refill easily (at least during public transport operating times, or even over the internet into a type of 'account' perhaps?)... or at the very least it would be good to be able to purchase a monthly ticket (excuse me if that option is already available.. Im not aware of it).

btw, in Japan (yes I know its Japan and not Australia, i lived there for a while, but just hear me out.. we shouldn't feel like we need to be 10 years behind them), anyway in Japan you can get monthly cards, or a permanent card you refill, that you just place in your wallet and swipe over a pad (the pads are at every train station gate, no reason why one couldn't be on a bus?) - you don't even need to take it out of your wallet.. and your fare is automatically deducted (in the case of rechargables) or logged or whatever (in the case of monthlies).

anyway, perhaps we should look to the japanese more often than eastern europe or the balkans or wherever we usually get our public technology from ...

[Somebody]

^^ Or you could stay a bit closer to home and look at Perth, which already has the SmartRider system up and working.

But stay far away from the myki disaster in Mexico, or the half-working Go Card in SE QLD.

[deano91]

One of the main things I focussed on last year for my Year 12 Japanese project was technology in Japan, secifically the Pasmo and Suika systems. Both of these systems just have a chip in the card which is read once passed over a reader. You can use these cards not only for train travel, but also at vending machines and public lockers. You can then recharge online, or even via a system on your computer very similar to bluetooth. While I don't think Adelaide needs the whole bluetooth system, or the vending machine and locker functions, I do think that the train travel idea is one that we should think about implementing when we get this new ticketing system that was promised in the budget...its just so convenient, you don't even need to get the card out of your wallet/purse, the reader is good enough to read the chip while it is still in your wallet. I do however think that a system like this may be inconvinient and problematic for tourists, and also the elderly, who will have a lot of trouble working out how to "recharge".

[skyliner]

One thing that they should do on trains is that they need to have a computerised voice that announces station names. Half of the time you can't even hear clearly what the driver has said, and then the other half of the time when you can hear them, they accidentally say the wrong station names and so they get fits of giggles, as happened while I was on the train the other day. It's ok for those of us that regularly catch the train and so know the order of
stations off by heart, but imagine trying to be a visiting tourist!!

This happens in Brisbane all the time - with an additional variant caused by inflections from dialects overriding the way things should be said.(or caused, from laziness). Eg Boovl for Booval or Ebvl for Ebbw Vale, Ringaaarrrr (like a footy shout) for Taringa. One driver cracks funnies all the time and misses the station names. So its not all isolated to Adelaide - it's just a pain to put up with.

SA - STATE ON THE MOVE

[Prince George]

The Seattle metro area has a complicated mess of paper tickets and swipe cards, with multiple different systems and incompatible fare structures held together by some unholy alliance between the counties and cities. I've had drivers give me different advice on how I'm supposed to pay for my transfers (if I pay it one way, King County Metro get more money, if I pay it the other, Sound Transit do better). Sometime this year it's supposed to all get replaced by the ORCA card (One Regional Card for All), a smartcard-based debit system. But people have given up believing that it's really coming, since this project was first approved back in '03 and was supposed to be live in '06 (can't find anything about the cost, either).

The ORCA FAQ also has charming entries like this one:

Are there other ways I can be tracked by the ORCA card?
Every time you use your ORCA card, a record of the unique identifier of the card, the time and location of use is stored in the transit agency's database. Over time, these records give a complete history of all your travel. At a minimum, employees of the transit agencies, law-enforcement, and the press will have access to that history. While these groups often have the best intentions when it comes to protecting your private data, it only takes one disgruntled employee or a lost laptop to put your private travel history in the hands of a malicious party.

My bus ticket tracks my whereabouts and that data might fall into the wrong hands? Let's see paper do that!

Actually, why do the press need access to that information?

[Aidan]

So now there's ORCA as well as Octopus and Oyster. There seems to be such a strong preference for sea creatures beginning with O that I wouldn't be surprised if someone introduces an Orange Roughy card next!

But the sea creatures don't have to start with O. Wellington's opted for Snapper. So has anyone got any suggestions as to what sea creature Adelaide should name its next ticketing system after?

[monotonehell]

So now there's ORCA as well as Octopus and Oyster. There seems to be such a strong preference for sea creatures beginning with O that I wouldn't be surprised if someone introduces an Orange Roughy card next!

But the sea creatures don't have to start with O. Wellington's opted for Snapper. So has anyone got any suggestions as to what sea creature Adelaide should name its next ticketing system after?

Blind Mullet

[Prince George]

So now there's ORCA as well as Octopus and Oyster. There seems to be such a strong preference for sea creatures beginning with O that I wouldn't be surprised if someone introduces an Orange Roughy card next!

But the sea creatures don't have to start with O. Wellington's opted for Snapper. So has anyone got any suggestions as to what sea creature Adelaide should name its next ticketing system after?

Blind Mullet

Leafy Sea Dragon. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue?

[Aidan]

So now there's ORCA as well as Octopus and Oyster. There seems to be such a strong preference for sea creatures beginning with O that I wouldn't be surprised if someone introduces an Orange Roughy card next!

But the sea creatures don't have to start with O. Wellington's opted for Snapper. So has anyone got any suggestions as to what sea creature Adelaide should name its next ticketing system after?

Blind Mullet

Maybe we should have two kinds of Mullett cards: blind ones and ones with built in displays?

Leafy Sea Dragon. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue?

Do we want something that abbreviates to LSD?

[Nathan]

One area where Adelaide is doing quite well is in using google maps for public transport journey planning.

Forget about jnomad, install google maps mobile (or get an android or iphone) and journey planning is at your fingertips anywhere where you are (and you have 3g)

Definitely. I've come to rely on Google Maps on my iPhone very quickly. It's incredibly easy to work out what the best transport option is, and when it comes.
I was actually quite annoyed during a recent trip to Melbourne, to find that they haven't added their tram network to Google Maps yet, and had to go to the tourist information centre in Fed Square to work out which one I needed to catch.

Now if Adelaide Metro could actually stick to the timetables they've given to Google...

[Norman]

Our card will probably be called the Adelaide Ticket Card.