City+living+myki

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Introduction
==Myki is the other of Melbourne's two ticketing systems (the other being Metcard). Myki is Melbourne's new public transport ticketing system that will soon phase out Metcard. Myki is a smart-card ticketing system that can be used all over Victoria. You only need the one card for Myki instead of buying Multiple Metcards, which is one of the many benefits of Myki. Myki also runs like a CityLink e-tag. ==

There are five kinds of tickets that are designed for different purposes:

 * ==full fare ticket for 17 years and older and no concession entitlement[[image:myki-logo.jpg width="190" height="136" align="right" caption="The Myki Logo"]] ==
 * ==concession ==
 * ==Victorian seniors ==
 * ==child ==
 * ==short term ticket (not yet available) ==

﻿History: A replacement for Metcard began in late 2002, when the government started researching for a new smart-card ticketing system, so the ticketing system could meet with Victoria's growing population demands. In June 2003, the TTA (Transport Ticketing Authority) was formed with a request for bidders (to win the contract) made one year later. By the time the offer closed in October 2004, six bidders decided to bid for the $454 million contract. Two months later, these bidderswere short-listed from to two. The Keane Coporation eventually won the contract over Manta T in July 2005. The contract required the company to run and maintain Myki and complete building the system in 2007. Is Myki actually completed, some people ask!

Two years later, Myki was supposed to begin its pilot program but it got delayed by a year. In August 2008, Myki began testing on Melbourne's trains and trams. By December, Myki went on sale to the people of Geelong, replacing the former ticketing system they had their. By April 2009, bus services in Ballarat, Bendigo and Seymour were converted to Myki. Soon after, bus services in the Gippsland Area were converted to Myki, making it the last regional area in Victoria to convert to Myki. The only ticketing systems in Victoria that are yet to be phased out are Metcard and V-line. In May 2009 Engineers began to install Myki readers on all metropolitain trams and buses as well as at train stations. In December 2009 Myki was finally launched on metropolitan trains, but this did not extend to trams and buses just yet. This was due to reliability issues. On July 25th 2010, Myki was finally launched on metropolitan trams and buses.

Benefits and Criticism There are some benefits of using Myki, such as the fact that it's cheaper to use than Metcard; it only takes 1-2 seconds to touch on and off, whereas with Metcard, it takes 5 seconds to read the ticket. Myki calculates the best fair based on how far you traveled and how often you use Myki during the day. The readers can read the Metcard through plastic slips and wallets, whereas with Metcard you have to take it out of your wallet and put the card into the machine. These are just some of the benefits of Myki.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">On the other hand, Myki has copped quite a lot of criticism over its roll out. When Myki was launched in Melbourne, former Transport Minister Lynn Kosky couldn't remember the Myki hotline number. Myki has also received so many delays. Myki was suppose to be launched in 2007 but soon got pushed back to 2008 and then again pushed back to 2010. Myki's cost has blowen out from $454 million to $1.35 billion. When Myki was rolled out to seniors, some Mykis were addressed to people who had since been deceased, which was seen as inappropriate. People's names have been printed incorrectly, and some cards have had 'anonymous' printed on them when people requested to have their names printed on the cards. There have also been many more issues with Myki, but I won't go into too much detail!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Opinion: <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">In my opinion, Myki is good but at the moment, there are too many bugs in the system. Once the technical people iron out the bugs, Myki will soon be better than Metcard. For now, I will continue to use Metcard until I have to use Myki.

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