Cityrail - Weekly tickets a costly stuff-up (February 11, 2010)

Weekly tickets a costly stuff-up

EXCLUSIVE by Rhys Haynes
From: The Daily Telegraph
February 11, 2010 12:23AM

THE new public transport ticketing system is in a shambles after it was found the boundaries used to calculate the cost of trips were wrong.

Passengers will pay up to $3 more for a weekly ticket than they were originally told, but the Government has failed to alert those affected.

It is believed up to 20 stations across Sydney will now be in a different zone compared with those in the original brochure when the new system starts on April 18.

Just weeks after announcing the new MyZone ticketing structure, the Government sent an urgent memo to CityRail station staff late on Tuesday, ordering them to stop handing brochures to commuters.

Hundreds of thousands of the leaflets already given to commuters are now redundant, with a new brochure printed at extra cost.

CityRail station managers said they had thrown all their remaining brochures in the bin, and were waiting to receive updated versions.

Maps on the MyZone website have been secretly altered, notably moving the boundary lines of Zones 1 and 2, making it even more confusing for passengers trying to figure out how much the new tickets will cost.

Passengers travelling from a number of stations in Sydney's north, such as Asquith and Mount Colah, have been moved from Zone 2 a fortnight ago, to now be paying Zone 3 ticket prices. A weekly from Mt Colah to the City will cost $43, up from $40 on the day the Government announced changes.

In some areas stations are now better off, with Seven Hills station moving from Zone 3 to Zone 2 with no further explanation.

But stations including Summer Hill, Ashfield, Croydon and even the International Airport have all been put in Zone 1 from Zone 2, making some trips cheaper.

The Government last night failed to say how many brochures were printed incorrectly, but admitted to failing commuters.

"An error was made in the printing of the very first edition of the brochure," a spokesman for Transport Minister David Campbell said. "It has now been corrected. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

The Government failed to explain the zone changes but said it had moved to bring all prices back in line with the Red TravelPass.

"It's important that current Red TravelPass commuters are aware they fall within Zone 1 and are no worse off under MyZone," the spokesman said. The Government said it had changed the website map and was printing new brochures.

IPART, the independent pricing regulator, was furious last week because it had not been consulted before the new public transport fare structure was released.

Shadow transport spokeswoman Gladys Berejiklian said yesterday MyZone was in a mess.

"Ticket changes were always about grabbing votes. Ms Keneally and Mr Campbell didn't do their homework," she said.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• cityrail
• sydney
• nsw
• railway
• trains
• railcorp

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