Opened without much fanfare (well, nothing I saw on mainstream media/blogs), the myki discovery centre has opened at Southern Cross station. Even the press release was hidden in the 'latest news' section of the myki website; nothing was changed on the front page to tell people, but I digress.

What's myki? It's the new smartcard ticket system for Victoria's public transport, to be introduced in around the third quarter this year.

The discovery centre's located outside the paid area of Southern Cross, near the bunch of shops facing Spencer St. (Interestingly, Southern Cross seems to be Microsoft's preferred advertising spot, with Vista 'Wow' signage everywhere, as well as a bunch of guys demoing the new Games for Windows initiative on the big screen just as you go down the stairs from the paid area.)

So what did I learn? Nothing really that I didn't know about, but I did find out more details.

To start off with, all the metcard machines will be dumped, for new machines with a touchscreen interface. This allows users to buy disposable smartcards, set to what ever ticket type they choose. From what I saw, the terminology was still zone 1 or zone 2. It could've been a lot better if they asked for people's planned destinations for the day, and select the zones needed accordingly. Disposable smartcards seem a bit wasteful too, and the fact that they're plastic means they'll be worse for the environment. A good thing though, is that all machines will now accept notes too (including ones on trams), so no need to keep a heavy bag of coins just for trips.

But for most users, we won't be buying tickets every time we take a trip. Why? Because starting with students, and later all commuters, we'll be buying a myki smartcard, estimated to be a few bucks for the card registration (or less for anonymous ones I think - pricing TBA), plus a starting amount of credit.  Buying a myki means everytime you need to use public transport - buses, trains & trams - you just 'scan on', that is, swipe your smartcard over the sensor area (it can be in your wallet), then 'scan off' when you leave. The cheapest fare will automatically be deducted, and the scanning machine will beep when your credit is low, or when its out of credit. It shows you the amount of credit left, as well as the current ticket you're travelling on too. Blue enquiry machines located throughout the network lets you view more history details too.

It is actually quite smart when calculating 'the smartest fare'. Many systems overseas just charge you per trip, because its much easier to calculate, but Melbourne will retain its time-based structure.

So, assuming the current Metcard full fares (which will have increased by the time myki is introduced), let's say you take the bus from Vermont South to Glen Waverley - it will deduct 2.40 from your card for a 2-hour zone-2 full fare ticket.

You then take the train from Glen Waverley to Flinders St - noticing you've travelled into a zone-1 area, it will deduct the additional difference to turn your ticket into a 2-hour zone-1+2 full fare ticket, that is, deduct 5.20 (zone 1+2) - 2.40 (zone 2) = 2.80.

Now, let's say you spend the day in the city meeting friends and shopping. When you travel back to Glen Waverley on the train, it'll noticed that you bought a zone-1+2 2-hour ticket, realise its the same day, and convert that into a daily zone-1+2 ticket, deducting the difference, 9.70 (daily) - 5.20 (2-hour) = 4.50.

Nothing further will be deducted when you take the bus from Glen Waverley to Vermont South - your current ticket already covers this.

Now let's say you end up doing similar trips for the rest of the week, Tuesday to Sunday. It'll charge you 7 zone 1+2 daily full fare tickets right? Wrong. Once you've bought enough zone 1+2 daily full fare tickets to exceed the price of a weekly zone 1+2 ticket (45.20, so a bit over 4 daily tickets), it'll automatically convert your past tickets into a weekly ticket, allowing you to travel for the rest of the weekly period for nothing (so trips after Friday will be free). The same occurs for monthly.

It's a pretty cool system, and takes the guesswork needed to plan trips to save money. Because of this though, it is imperative that commuters 'scan off' before they leave the vehicle, otherwise the computer will have no way of working out where you left and will end up charging you full price for the trip. This applies to buses and trams, so it'll be interesting how well it is done, given there's enough of a problem with lack of validation on trams. People just aren't used to scanning off on these vehicles (arguably on trains either, given the open gates all the time). Overseas systems tend to just charge you the full fare, which while easier for commuters, means they get charged more.

If you get a registered myki, that is, one with your photo and details on it (which all concession travellers will have), you get to check your myki details online, as well as top it up over the net with a credit card. Credit can also be transferred if you lose your card. Alternatively, credit can also be topped up at service centres, the new machines mentioned earlier, or direct debited.

Later on, they'll be introducing facilities that let you use it at newsagencies, coffee shops, 7-11s, and more, which means less need to carry coinage!

Melbourne is really playing catch-up to the rest of the world with this system, but hopefully with the expertise gathered from installations around the world, our one will work smoothly from the get-go (unlikely with big projects, but hey, wishful thinking's good ). It's definitely easier than the current system, so once we get over the initial learning curve, I think there'll be more people willing to give it a try. It hides a lot of the zonal pricing system, so there should be less confusion.

The discovery centre at Southern Cross is quite good, with all the bits we'll be using operational, plus the staff there seem pretty knowledgeable, answering nearly all the questions I bombarded her with. Check it out, or at least check out the myki website (very nice design too) - most of us will be using it sometime in the future, so might as well get used to it.

P.S. Sorry guys for the lack of pictures - I thought I could find them on the myki site which would look better than the crappy ones from my phone's camera, but there weren't any there. The picture above, from the myki site, is of the scan-on-scan-off machine. The balance-checking machine looks very similar, except has a row of 4 silver buttons and is the whole thing is coloured blue/purple. The gates don't look much different, except they have a bigger screen and also a smartcard scanner on the top. The ticketing machines were a bit devoid of signage at the moment (just plain silver), but its just a big silver box with notes and coin slots, smartcard reader, and a 13-inch touchscreen. The bigger one has EFTPOS facilities as well.