[ABC News] 1 in 5 bus passengers using MyWay

Started by Barry Drive, March 24, 2011, 12:09:14 PM

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Barry Drive

From ABC Online, 21 March

The ACT Government says about a fifth of Canberra bus passengers are now using the new MyWay ticketing system.

From April 11, paper-based tickets will no longer be valid on ACTION buses.

MyWay cards or cash fares will be the only way that passengers can access buses after that date.

The new cards were offered to seniors a month ago and made more widely available a fortnight ago.

TAM's (sic) Director of Transport Planning Paul Peters says the old system will be phased out early next month.

"At this stage we have around 12,000 people that have actually got (MyWay) cards," Mr Peters said.

"On any one given day there's somewhere like 6,000 to 7,000 people actually using their cards on the buses. At this stage, there's something like 30,000 passangers each day on the bus network in Canberra, eventually we'll be hoping most of those will pick up a MyWay card. "

Mr Peters says the new MyWay system has incentives.

"We think that the fare structure that we are providing, and the level of service will encourage more people to use the buses in Canberra.

"We anticipate that the introduction of the MyWay system and the reduction in fares will bring us some more patronage.

"We need to review that after April 10, but that might be somewhere in the order of 5 per cent, something like that."


Aenveigh

Noticed it's more like 3/5 using MyWay now... people must be running out of magstripe cards... I mean, why would you use MyWay when you could, 8-9/10 times, wave the card at the driver and travel free?
I'd expect by the cutoff date, most regular bus patrons will have just used up their old cards anyway, it'll be the occasional riders that will have to watch out to avoid losing paid-for ticket value.