Something fishy with MyKi

Melbourne, as many people will be aware, has been in the process of unveiling a new, fancy integrated ticketing system to replace the old magnetic tickets. Just like Sydney’s Tcard, the MyKi has suffered cost blowouts and delays, and since its release has been marred by lack of broad take-up in the community, and problems to do with functionality and billing, for those that have. Sydney’s Tcard on the other hand never made it to full roll-out and was scrapped instead.

Some have pointed to the inherent problems of the system as the cause of the failings; the reinventing of the wheel when it comes to devising the technology, the lack of need for the system given that the Metcard is already an integrated ticketing system, the lack of financial incentive for the user to adopt the system (indeed, the user is discouraged from adopting the system because the card itself requires a deposit), or the lack of support for tourists and infrequent transport users.

But I propose that there’s a deeper seeded reason for the failings of the MyKi, which will also explain the failings of the Tcard.

Some of the Snapper card formats on offer

If we turn our attention to some of the more successful systems, then we see that the Oyster card (London) works well, has a financial incentive in that it’s cheaper, and more complicated fare structures are done away with, and allows the user to have a single card that works for all modes of transport. Wellington’s Snapper (pictured above) similarly works well and successfully integrated the various forms of transport in New Zealand’s capital and has enjoyed a high rate of uptake.

And finally Hong Kong’s Octopus card, which was the first integrated chip-based ticketing system in the world, and arguably the most successful. With the Octopus, the user can choose from different formats – why does it need to be a standard sized card? You can get small keyring based Octopuses with mobile phone straps, and younger users might be more at home with little Rilakkuma designs (pictured below).

I think it’s quite obvious what’s wrong with MyKi and the Tcard: they haven’t used marine animals in their names. In the interest of helping out the common good, I’m hereby making some suggestions to the Victorian and New South Wales Governments:

Mullet Card
Grunter Card
Red Herring
Blobfish
White Whale

If any government representatives would like to buy any of these names from me, feel free to leave a comment below and make an offer.

<update date=”April 21, 2011″>
It was suggested to me last night that a nice marine themed name that also captures the incompetence of the roll-out is fail whale.
</update>

2 Responses to “ Something fishy with MyKi ”

Comments:

Peter Austin says:
April 21st, 2011 at 12:39 am

London’s Oyster card can also be used as a “stored value” card to make small purchases in shops, and can be automatically “topped up” when it reaches a certain level of credit so it never runs out of value. On my daily bus journeys I would estimate that 95% of users now have Oyster cards — the days of buying tickets are almost gone.

jangari says:
April 21st, 2011 at 2:34 pm

Yes, and Wellington’s Snapper has plans to implement that in the future.

It’s a shame that Sydney’s Tcard hasn’t worked out – buying a ticket and using it in Sydney requires almost native Sydney knowledge of zones, sections and the various modes of transport, and many people are caught out.

In truth, I believe the thing that caused the Tcard’s demise was the government’s desire to retain the zones and sections, as opposed to taking London’s approach and making all bus journeys a single price (2 quid I believe). For London, this meant that they could just have fairly simple machines on buses that only had to read a card as it was produced. The Sydney buses needed GPS units to decide where on the route they were, and also needed users to tap off at the other end so the cost of the route could be ascertained.

I’ve thought of another use for integrated ticketing cards: paying for road tolls, so you wouldn’t have to apply for a toll beeping thing if you go traveling somewhere by car. In fact here’s another idea; imagine if your Oyster card could be used on Melbourne public transport, or in Wellington, et cetera. That would be a truly integrated ticketing system.