Thursday, May 30, 2013

Go Card - "Touch Again" trap!

The other go card reader was broken.
It seems that the reliability of station go card readers have been getting worse recently. For two consecutive days this week, BrizCommuter received one of the commonly encountered "touch again" warnings when "touching on" at the start a train journey. When this error occurs, touching a second time usually "touches on". However, on this occasion, the second touch "touched off" and cancelled the journey. This means that the first touch with a "touch again" warning actually did "touch on". This should not be occurring! Annoyingly, when BrizCommuter then tried to "touch on" again, he received an "already touched" message. Arrrgh!

BrizCommuter would not be surprised if many go card users have incurred fixed fares as a result of this issue. TransLink should automatically identify and refund affected customers. Failure to do so could be seen as de-frauding customers. This issue also opens up passengers to being fined by Transit Officers as the go card will not be on a "touched on" status during the journey. BrizCommuter is very concerned that this go card reader error is exposing passengers to both financial and legal risks. 

The go card system is so unreliable and full of pitfalls that it could be described as being barely fit for purpose! It should be noted that BrizCommuter has extensively used RFID card systems in London, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Singapore with no serious issues. Why does Brisbane always get it so wrong?

3 comments:

  1. Why does Brisbane get it so wrong?

    I think you have already covered this topic when giving blog posts from both sides of government on their love affair with cars and road transport over public transport.

    There is a real attitude of if we provide something then our duty is done when it comes to public transport.

    Take for instance the current situation with CRR and only now that there is a crises is there any analysis of having to improve what we currently have.

    So if there was no CRR crises, why should we be stuck with poor public transport?

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  2. It rained... Signals and goCard readers don't like the rain... in a sub-tropical climate like Brisbane

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  3. This has happened so many times to me. Faulty readers. Report them to most rail staff and they shrug and can't be bothered to put a sign on the affected reader. Pure revenue raising... and time wasted for commuters having to phone up for a refund.

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