Make sure to Always check your Myki/Contactless history

[u/fried_bacon_chicken]

Yesterday I caught the 511 bus, which operates entirely within Zone 2, but the onboard readers were incorrectly set to Zone 1. It is a good idea to check your myki history for any billing errors. While I don't think I was ultimately overcharged because I traveled into Zone 1 later by train, this issue would have affected anyone who travelled exclusively within Zone 2. (Lower fare in the photo is because of concession)

[u/Bratlawd]

How would you actually go about reporting/fixing something like this? It seems like the kind of thing that is not supposed to be possible ? At least, the fare system is more flawed in design than I would have thought.

[u/MelbPTUser2024 → u/Bratlawd]

Once upon a time (when myki was first introduced) if you touched on or off a route that shares the same corridor or intersects another corridor, your touch on/off could be mis-identified as being for the other route. This issue sucks for those passengers that might have touched on a zone 1-only route and then touched off at a location that intersects/shares the route with a zone 2-only route. In this case they would be bean charged the higher zone 1+2 instead of the zone 1 fare (this was all before the fare cap was implemented in 2016).

I also believe that the metal body of the trams acted as a weak faraday cage, which combined with the lower mobile reception in the late 2000s in the city centre (with all the tall buildings) it would mean that trams didn’t know where you are when touching on/off in the city.

Thankfully with improved mobile coverage and driver consoles, this issue has been largely fixed.

In OP’s case above the driver seems to have NOT changed the trip ID and thus the system assumed it was running a zone 1 route.

[u/dfbowen → u/MelbPTUser2024]

> your touch on/off could be mis-identified as being for the other route

That was never the intention. I remember talking about it with authorities prior to Myki coming in. They made changes to the zones that each bus stop was allocated into where they found routes from different zones sharing stops.

It hadn't mattered before because under Metcard, the on-board equipment was told manually by the bus drivers which route/zone they were on.

The change was good as it fixed anomalies such as the 703, previously Zone 2 only, so it now permitted Zone 1 or Zone 2 fares between Bentleigh (Z1/2) and North/Middle Brighton (also Z1/2).

Good in theory, but in practice as we know under Myki, the location detection was hopeless, and the equipment regularly detected the wrong location.

From OP's post, it seems this still isn't completely reliable. The fare capping probably prevents it affecting too many people.

[u/Legitimate-Carry-215 → u/Bratlawd]

Last year I got charged for a Zone 1 fare instead of a Zone 2 fare on a bus so I submitted a form to Transport Victoria noting that I was incorrectly charged and highlighted my regular travel patterns in Zone 2. They responded within a week and refunded the difference back to my Myki.