go-card transfer rule questions

[jonwil]

I have some questions about how the Go Card system calculates whether something is a transfer or not, anyone know anything about it?

According to my Go Card history, I have this set of trips:
Beenleigh to Helensvale on train (failed to touch on at Beenleigh and got charged the default fare at Helensvale), cant remember what time I left at
bus from Helensvale to GCUH sometime after 10:08AM (reader wasn't working, didn't need to touch on at all)
Tram from Gold Coast University Hospital Station to Southport at 10:33AM
Tram from Southport to Broadbeach South at 12:00PM
Bus from Broadbeach South station stop C to Nerang station stop B at 1:47PM
Train from Nerang to Coomera at 2:12PM
Bus from Coomera station stop A to a stop in Upper Coomera at 3:08PM

The 10:33AM tram is labeled as a "touch on" as is the 12:00PM tram and the 1:47PM bus. The later train and bus are labeled as "transfers"

Can anyone tell me why the 12:00PM tram from Southport to Broadbeach South wouldn't be counted as a "transfer" off the earlier GCUH-Southport tram (given that the rules state that transfers are meant to happen if you start a new journey within 3.5 hours of your initial one beginning) or why the 1:47PM Broadbeach-Nerang bus didn't count as a transfer against the 12:00PM tram (since its within 3.5 hours of the previous "touch on" service). Are there different transfer rules in place for tram journeys or something?

I have a second set of trips with a bus from Beenleigh to Loganholme at 9:02AM and another bus from Loganholme to Beenleigh at 11:17AM. The second bus was not counted as a transfer of the first bus (even though it was within the 3.5 hour window). Does the system detect return journeys and not count them as transfers?

[simonl]

If you didn't touch off the train, I don't think you can get a transfer to the tram. I also think there are limits that you can only be in the next zone. If you touch off in zone 6, you can't touch on in zone 8 for a transfer. Not sure if that applies in this case though - actually probably would since your last touch was Beenleigh.

Anyway, presuming that your touch off the tram was 10:59am or before, your touch on at 12pm cannot be a transfer because it is more than an hour later. Same story with the 1:47pm bus.

The 3.5 hours refers to the first touch to the last touch (on maybe?) in a journey, not the gap between the separate sectors.

[jonwil]

Ok now I understand it, I was miss-reading the information on the Translink website.