Well, they get given some posters to put in their front window.

Boxes of Myki cards – in full fare, concession and seniors flavours.

And the most important thing – a Psion Teklogix Workabout Pro handheld computer running custom Myki software, to process Myki card sale and topups.

And a quarterly payment of $260.00, along with a card issuing payment of $0.50, and a 4% commission on every topup.

So what do retailers think?

Back in 2008 the Herald Sun covered the reaction of newsagents to the new ticketing system, and the change in commission structure compared to the previous Metcard tickets.

The Victorian Authorised Newsagents Association says the Transport Ticketing Authority is offering just 12c commission on a transaction for the new myki card.

Under the existing Metcard arrangement newsagents receive a 5 per cent commission.

Clayton Newsagency owner Simon Richards, a third-generation newsagent, said he told the TTA he would not be selling the ticket, despite his long history selling Metcard.

“I won’t be taking up their offer,” Mr Richards said.

“They are just making it economically unviable.”

Mr Richards said newsagents would lose money on the transactions if customers used debit or credit cards, which cost the retailers a fee every time they were processed.

“We get 12c a transaction, but if someone produces an Amex card, which is 3 per cent (fee), then it’s just unviable.”

A copy of the myki outlet fee schedule, seen by the Herald Sun, shows that retailers who sell a new myki will get 50c, while processing a top-up on the smartcard will generate a 12c commission.

As well, a service fee of $260 will be paid to the agents four times a year.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the Government had slashed newsagent commissions by up to 65 per cent.

With independent newsagents also unhappy the government favoured 7-Eleven as their favoured Myki retail outlet.

Myki is a dog of a system. The previous government allowed it to provide 7-Eleven with an advantage over newsagents by agreeing to integration with their in-house systems. This was promised for newsagents, after my lobbying, and then dropped. So much for the Government back then supporting small business. If scrapping Myki pulls this back then it’s a good thing.

But they don’t seem worried if the upcoming changes to Myki see newsagents cut out altogether.

From a retailer perspective, the minuscule commission from MYKI card top-ups does not cover the actual costs of providing the service and the dealing with myriad customer queries. But plenty continue to offer it, including me in one of my shops.

There is no upside in services, especially minuscule commission services – these are best handled throng convenience stores. But … as with anything I write about here, what you do in your business is up to you.

For the one shop I have that offers MYKI top-ups, we will continue until the government decides otherwise. We don’t rely on it. It’s not core. But, it is a customer service that is appreciated locally … and for that we are grateful.

Footnote: fee schedule

Here is a full fee schedule dating back to the introduction of Myki in the late-2000s.

MYKI OUTLET FEES SCHEDULE

This Fees Schedule applies for the purposes of the myki Outlet Agreement and supersedes any previous Fees Schedule

1. Customer service payment

A quarterly payment of $260.00, paid for your satisfactory performance of operational and customer service obligations. The payment is payable each quarter in arrears. If you fail to meet the required service obligations, payment may be partially or fully withheld or forfeited

2. Top up of myki with money or myki pass

Each time a myki is loaded with product or topped the up with value at the myki Outlet, you will receive payment of four per cent (4%) of the published price of the product or value of the top up

3. Card issuing

For each new myki you issue you will receive a card issuing payment of $0.50. This amount is payable in addition to the initial top up. Thus, if a customer buys a new myki and loads initial value or product onto the myki at the same time, you will be paid $0.50 for issuing the card plus 4% for the initial top up. The initial top up does not include the
card fee payable by the customer.

4. myki merchant service fee (MSF)

The MSF is payable by you to TTA if myki is used to purchase goods at your store. The use of myki as payment for goods and services is a service that must first be approved by TTA, as it will be subject to Government approval. The MSF is 2.5% of the value of the purchase.

5. GST

All amounts are inclusive of GST.

5. EFTPOS and credit cards

If the myki Outlet has EFTPOS or credit card facilities, these should be available for customers who wish to buy myki cards and add product or value. It is preferred if these facilities are provided at no extra charge to customers. This does not prevent the myki Outlet from applying its normal minimum EFTPOS or credit card limits.

Note the mention of “use of myki as payment for goods and services” – the original plans for the “New Ticketing Solution” intended that the smartcard would be able to be used for more than just transport payments.

One example is Hong Kong’s Octopus card, which is accepted at vending machine, parking meters, and retail outlets.

However the Myki rollout took so long that by the time it finally went live, contactless payment was now a standard feature of credit cards, leading to it being dropped from the scope like so much else.

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In the beginning

Back in the “good old days” paper tickets ruled the railways, each one of them individually numbered, and sold for a specific combination of origin and destination.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 237/08

As you might expect, that added up to a lot of tickets.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 015/04

Which took up a lot of space in a ticket office.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 015/02

The poor ticketing clerk being surrounded by them!

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 015/06

So the Victorian Railways separated out the ticket offices at major stations – for example Spencer Street had separate ‘suburban’ ticket offices.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 015A/09

And Flinders Street Station directed country passengers to a single ticket offices at the ‘Centre’ entrance opposite Degraves Street.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0003, ADV 1691

Times change

By the 1980s reforms to suburban tickets saw a new system introduced – first the ‘Neighbourhood’ paper tickets, followed by zone based “Scratch” tickets, massively reducing the number of tickets to be sold.

Scan via Reddit

And then cut back even further with the introduction of Metcard, and the on-demand encoding of pre-printed tickets by automated machines.

V/Line also went through a similar modernisation, switching to tickets printed on-demand by a computer terminal.

And then in 2013 something resembling a unification of the two systems, when Myki was rolled out to the V/Line network, as “one system to rule them all”.

But with one exception – the rollout of Myki to long distance V/Line services was dropped, leaving them using the legacy paper ticket system, which need to be issued via a computer system dedicated to the task.

And today

Southern Cross Station still has separate suburban and country ticket offices – Metro Trains Melbourne runs ticket offices on the Collins Street and Bourke Street concourses.

While V/Line runs their ticket offices at the Spencer Street entrance to the station, and beneath the Bourke Street Bridge.

Flinders Street Station also splits the ticket offices – there is a V/Line ‘Regional Tickets’ window beside the Metro Trains Melbourne ‘Customer Service’ counter.

Melbourne Central has a V/Line branded ‘Regional Trains’ window at the Swanston Street end of the station.

Oakleigh has a wooden door with a ‘Country / Interstate Booking Office’ sign on it.

And back to what triggered this post – Box Hill station has a little V/Line branded room beside the ticket office.

Footnote: printing paper tickets

As you might have guessed, selling each passenger a paper ticket every time they travelled used up a lot of paper – a million tickets a week.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 680/07

So the Victorian Railways ran their own printing works on Laurens Street, North Melbourne.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 020/15

And then sent them to a room at head office – 67 Spencer Street.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 159/08

Where staff would stamp the unique serial number onto each ticket blank.

PROV image VPRS 12903/P0001, 159/06

Footnote: a weird franchise fact

With suburban trains being operated by Metro Trains Melbourne and country trains by V/Line, the franchise agreements need to specify who is responsible for what. First, V/Line trains need access to Metro stations:

Schedule 7
Interoperator Agreements
Part 1 Mandatory Interoperator Agreements
1 Access Agreements
(a) The V/Line Passenger Access Agreement.
(b) The Station Access Agreement – NSW TrainLink for access by NSW Trains (ABN 50 325 560 455) to tracks leased by the Franchisee from PTV.

And V/Line has to have access to the ticket offices located in stations managed by Metro.

– The Sublease for the ticket office box at Flinders Street Station dated 20 November 2009 between the Franchisee and V/Line.
– The Station Agreement for access by V/Line to stations leased by the Franchisee from PTV.

Sounds like the only winners are the lawyers paid to write up these agreements.

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So why was it a problem?

When Myki was first rolled out, the cards were bright green, with different designs for Full Fare, Concession, Child and Student fares.

As you might expect, having to keep four different types of card in stock was a logistical pain, so in May 2013 it was decided to move to a single card design, as part of a larger rebrand of Myki.

Over the coming weeks you will notice some changes as the myki website progressively moves to the Public Transport Victoria website.

We’ve already updated myki management forms to include the PTV website and call centre number.

And we’ve just replaced all references to the myki call centre number with the PTV call centre number (1800 800 007) on the myki website, but because cards last for four years, your myki card will continue to carry the 13 6954 number for a while. There’s no need to worry. If you call the myki call centre number you will continue to be diverted to the PTV call centre.

We are also in the process of moving to a single myki card design which will allow us to add PTV information to all new cards produced in the future. These cards are expected to be available later this year.

“Later this year” was wishful thinking, with the new look cards not rolled out until November 2014.

Victoria will see new-look myki cards from early November, the next step in Public Transport Victoria’s (PTV) plan to simplify the system and provide more options at myki ticket machines next year.

The new-look myki is dark grey and will be available for all passenger types. It features PTV’s network branding design, PTV’s updated contact information, and a blank strip for customers to write their name for identification.

Alan Fedda, PTV’s Director of Customer Services, said the new-look myki has many benefits for card sellers, operators, and distributors.

“The new-look myki will make distribution and stock holding simpler for retailers and station window staff as they no longer need to carry four different types of cards,” said Mr Fedda.

“Distributing four separate card types across the network increases delivery costs for PTV.

“The single card design streamlines the process of ordering and handling cards for operator and retail outlets, and reduces the overall amount of stock they need to hold on site.”

In 2015, new-look cards will enable seniors, child and concession customers to purchase myki cards at myki vending machines for the first time.

Mr Fedda said myki machines will be reprogrammed to sell all four types of myki cards.

“Myki machines will only carry the new-look myki. The passenger type and any concession entitlements will be coded to the myki at the vending machine.

“This means seniors, children and concession customers will be able to purchase myki cards at unstaffed stations, in addition to the staffed stations and other locations they already use.”

Mr Fedda said there was no need for customers to change to a new card if their green myki has not expired, in line with PTV’s commitment to minimise wastage.

And their 2015 timeline for selling all kinds of card in machines was even more optimistic – the subsequent Myki machine ‘upgrade’ was just some new stickers!

And the rollout of card sales of all types to ticket machines – it took until August 2021!

Victorians can now buy more types of myki cards from myki machines. Until now, you could only purchase a Full Fare myki from a myki machine but this is changing.

Beginning Friday 20 August 2021, General Concession, Senior and Child myki cards will be available for purchase from a myki machine. This applies to all myki machines throughout Victoria and is expected to be completed by Tuesday 31 August 2021.

A Full Fare myki costs $6.00 and a General Concession, Senior and Child myki each cost $3.00. You will still be able to top up with myki Money or a myki Pass at every myki machine. The minimum top up amount is $1, but we recommend topping up with at least a 2-hour fare so you have a valid ticket for your next trip.

If you’re travelling with a General Concession, Senior or Child myki, please ensure you have the correct proof of eligibility with you.

That’s 7 years since the idea was first floated publicly.

Footnote: the other long running Myki saga

Myki machines were also know for covering Melbourne in unwanted receipts – that problem was eventually fixed in 2019.

Footnote: expiry dates and retail ticket sales

Turns out the expiry date of Myki cards sold at retail outlets is set during the card distribution stage, a problem discovered in 2013 when people buying “new” cards discovered they were almost ready expire.

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I arrived by train from Melbourne into Sydney Central station, where I started my hunt to buy an Opal card. On the main concourse is the Transport NSW information office, which was my first port of call.

I asked a simple question:

I’d like to buy an Opal card.

And they gave me a ridiculous response.

You have to go down to the newsagency at the end of the concourse and buy one there.

Here I am, standing in the middle of a bloody railway station, and the ticket office can’t even sell me a train ticket?

I made my way down to the newsagency, waited in line behind someone else buying an Opal card, and then purchased my own – the card itself was free, but I had to load travel credit onto it in order for it to be activated for travel.

With that down, I was then ready to head through the ticket gates, and onto my onward train.

So where can you buy a Opal card?

The Opal website lists the following places to buy an Opal card:

• online
• at an Opal retailer (only available for unregistered Adult and Child/Youth Opal cards)
• at selected Transport Customer Service Centres and Shops
• at selected Service NSW locations
• by calling 13 67 25 (13 OPAL)

Note the complete absence of railway station ticket offices from the above list – ‘Transport Customer Service Centres and Shops‘ are the Sydney equivalents of the ‘PTV Hubs’ found in Melbourne.

And what about ticket machines?

Sydney’s Opal card was rolled out in a bizarre way – it was made available for travel on limited services back in December 2012, but it took two more years for the first top up machines to go live – in March 2015.

The first machines only allowed passengers to top up their Opal card using debit or credit cards.

Later machines added the option to top up using cash, as well as the purchase of single trip tickets.

Opal card top up and single trip ticket machine at the Circular Quay ferry pier

Compare the above ticket options to Melbourne – where you can buy or top up a Myki card at any railway station, but you don’t have any option to purchase a single trip ticket at all.

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Before Myki

The inability to pre-purchase a V/Line ticket might sound a little odd to someone who never left Melbourne, but it was true – V/Line travel was almost as inflexible as travelling with a low cost airline, and nothing like Metcard, where you could buy a ticket ahead of time and keep it in your wallet until you needed it.

In the days of paper V/Line tickets, they could only be purchased from major railway stations, or a limited number of ticket agents in country towns, and every time you bought a ticket you needed to know on what date you wanted to travel.

It was possible to buy V/Line tickets ahead of time for a future trip, but if your travel plans changed, a trip back to the ticket office would be required, to get a refund on your old ticket and have a replacement ticket issued for the new date – and too bad if you forget to get the refund before your travel date!

With all of that mucking around, it was no surprise that the majority of passengers bought their tickets on the day of travel. As a result the busiest times for V/Line station staff was after the commuter peak – hoards of passengers headed for a day out in Melbourne would all descend on the station ten minutes before the next train, each needing to be sold a ticket before the train departed.

The difficulty in pre-purchasing tickets also resulted in massive lines at Southern Cross Station every Friday evening, as Melbournians headed for the country waited to buy V/Line tickets from the booking office.

It didn’t help that the majority of Melbournians didn’t know that V/Line tickets could be purchased most staffed suburban railway stations.

Regular commuters were a little more lucky, as their regular travel patterns allowed them to confidently purchase their weekly or monthly tickets ahead of time – my usual trick was to pick one up at my local station on my way home, ready for the next morning. However that didn’t prevent queues forming at country stations every Monday morning, as forgetful commuters realised that their tickets had expired over the weekend.

Fast forward to today and V/Line travel is far more convenient, at least for irregular travellers – just top up your Myki ahead of time, and if you decide to take a trip on a V/Line service, all you need to do is touch on and off.

The loser with Myki are V/Line commuters – gone are the days of just walking onto the train, falling asleep with your weekly ticket on your lanyard, and then waking up in Melbourne – now you need to touch on when you board, get woken up by the conductor for a ticket check, and then wait in a long line at Southern Cross to get out of the ticket gates.

Why so inflexible?

The above raises a question – why were V/Line tickets so inflexible? The reason itself is thanks to Myki.

If we go back about decade, V/Line trains were a lot less busy than they are today, with services being both slower and less frequent.

The V/Line ticketing system was also different, with the rules being more flexible – each return ticket gave the holder seven days to make the ‘forward’ journey and 30 days to complete the ‘return’ leg, with the conductor walk through each train in order to punch a hole in every ticket.

In addition, a ticket to ‘Southern Cross’ was just that – V/Line ticket holders were only entitled to travel to the stations listed on their ticket, so any journeys involving a connecting leg on a suburban train required passengers to buy a separate Metcard to complete their journey.

Changes came in January 2006, when the V/Line and metropolitan ticketing systems were integrated as part of the extended lead up to the introduction of Myki. The V/Line website circa 2006 described the changes as such.

A number of changes to V/Line fares and conditions came into effect from 1 January 2006.

Designed to further align ticket rules ahead of the introduction of Victoria’s new public transport ticketing solution in 2007, the changes affect a number of ticket types, as well as some of the rules and conditions applying to travel on V/Line trains and coaches.

The changes will lead to greater consistency across the public transport system – directly linking regional and metropolitan fares – making it easier for customers to access different forms of Victorian public transport.

One of the most significant changes will provide V/Line ticket holders with free access to the metropolitan system (trains, trams and buses), as well as regional buses, from 22 April 2006.

It was this change to ticketing rules that killed off “open” return tickets – with the new benefits given to passengers, there were many ways to game the system. Some of them included:

• With V/Line tickets now valid on suburban services, you could buy a cheap V/Line return ticket, punch the ‘forward’ leg, and then spend the next 30 days travelling in Melbourne for free, while telling ticket inspectors that you were headed back to the country later that day.
• The new VLocity trains did not allow conductors to change carriages mid-journey, so passengers could play ‘dodge the conductor’ to avoid getting their ticket punched, and reuse the ‘return’ leg of their ticket another day.

When V/Line added restrictions to their paper tickets back in 2006, it was originally intended that the ‘New Ticketing System’ (Myki) was to replace it within a year or so. As a result, V/Line never bothered to come up with their own way of pre-purchasing tickets ahead of time, or implementing any form of automatic ticket machines – the supposed silver bullet of Myki was ‘just around the corner’ for half a decade.

V/Line did experiment with online sales of tickets, such as this ‘Travelwise’ flyer from 2009 shows. Unfortunately the initiative fell flat, as the collection options were anything but convenient – purchasers had the choice of waiting 48 hours to pickup from a station, or 7 days for postal delivery!

It took until June 2013 for Myki to be finally rolled out to V/Line commuter services, which allowed paper tickets to be killed off in February 2014.

‘Business Card’ footnote

Another defunct V/Line ticket was the ‘Business Card’ – a 10 trip ticket that could be purchased in advance, and then punched by the conductor each time you travelled. The original intent behind it was making it easier for irregular passengers to travel by train, but from 2006 it was vulnerable to the same loopholes as ‘open’ return tickets. It was eventually killed off in 2007 because the majority of purchasers were only using them to game the system.

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All Sydney Ferries out of Circular Quay stopped due to heavy fog. Can use tickets on trains and buses instead.

— 131500 ferries (@131500ferries) September 7, 2014

Buses in and out of the Sydney CBD delayed up to 35 minutes due to #Barangaroo fire. Use bus tickets on trains and ferries, allow extra time

— 131500 buses (@131500buses) March 12, 2014

Train tickets can be used on Sydney Buses, Hillsbus & Veolia buses and Sydney Ferries services until 8pm.

— 131500 trains (@131500trains) February 13, 2013

Light Rail tickets valid on Sydney Trains (Sydney CBD stations & #InnerWestLine), Sydney Buses and Sydney Ferries due to earlier derailment.

— 131500 ferries (@131500ferries) October 8, 2013

A number of buses affected by #DarlingSt closure in Rozelle. Bus tickets can be used on F3 & F4 ferries & light rail http://t.co/Zgudk2G8zw

— 131500 buses (@131500buses) September 4, 2014

Notice a pattern?

[Disrupted Service] tickets are valid on [Other Service]

The reason for this is Sydney’s lack of multimodal tickets on their public transport system – for each trip made on a train, bus, ferry or light rail a separate fare needs to be paid, even when a passenger is using the new Opal smartcard.

Compare this with Melbourne – you can take a bus to the railway station, ride a train into the city, and then catch a tram to your office – and only pay a single fare, even back in the days when Metcard was the only ticketing system in use.

The Transport Sydney blog has more on the subject:

The expansion of Opal into a multi-modal ticketing system will not be accompanied by multi-modal fares. Opal users who travel on just a single mode of transport will pay less than one who travels on two modes, even if their origin and destination are exactly the same.

This penalises passengers for having to make a transfer via higher fares, despite this being an added inconvenience to them. An ideal fare system, one which uses integrated fares, would charge passengers based on the distance they travel, regardless of which and how many modes they use to get there.

The reluctance to integrate fares at this point may be due to the government’s choice to focus on rolling out Opal first, and fixing the fares second.

At least in Melbourne public transport users have the option of moving between train, tram and bus for no additional cost!

Further reading

Sydney-based writer David Caldwell has more detail on Opal’s dysfunctional approach to intermodal fares on his blog. For the purposes of comparison, Melbourne introduced a single ticket for all forms of public transport way back in 1981 – the Victorian Public Transport Ticketing website gives the complete chronology.

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