I have only ever had courtesy from ticket inspectors, but then I always have a ticket.
The new scanners are faster and more reliable, and do read through my jacket pocket with the card away from my wallet.
I watch all the sheep remove wallets and purses, then cards, twice per journey: sure targets for today's feral youth crime. I watched one lady even drop her purse when fumbling with her card.
Roderick
Ticket inspectors ‘intimidating’ passengers on Melbourne’s trains and trams.
Herald Sun November 17, 2016.
HEAVY-handed ticket inspectors are “intimidating” passengers on trams and trains — and even calling police when they don’t get their way.
The Public Transport Ombudsman has criticised their behaviour and wants them to improve their manners before they issue fines to fare evaders.
Complaints about the behaviour of authorised officers jumped 16 per cent to 282 cases this financial year, shows the Ombudsman’s annual report, to be released today.
In growing concerns about the behaviour of ticket cops, a Metro authorised officer went against “standard practice” and used Google Translate to caution a passenger in Vietnamese.
Customers made 282 complaints against authorised officers this financial year.
In another case, the ticket inspector called police after a woman, who thought she had touched on, refused to show her ID after the mouthy authorised officer refused to listen to her and cut her off. In another instance, a ticket inspector threatened to arrest a bystander who had come to the aid of a woman who was “very upset” at the interaction with the officer.
Yarra Trams also fined people who were not able to validate their mykis despite being instructed to allow passengers at least the length of “one stop” to swipe their passes.
“This can be a confronting experience for anyone, particularly if they believe they have taken all reasonable steps to travel with a valid ticket,” the report said.
“It seems that women, in particular, are discomforted by the approach to fare enforcement. Of the 50 complaints to our office that described an AO interaction as intimidating, 64 per cent came from women.”
Public Transport Ombudsman Treasure Jennings said it was a “concern” complaints about ticket inspectors had increased despite efforts to improve their behaviour, and three other reviews into their conduct.
“More work needs to be done in this area to ensure AOs have adequate support and the right skills to interact with the community in an effective and fair way,” she said.
In a bid for consistency and fairness, the $75 on-the-spot fine for fare evasion will be abolished at the start of 2017.
Ticket inspectors will have the power to issue warnings instead of automatically dishing out a $223 fine to help ease public dissatisfaction and to show leniency to commuters who make honest mistakes.
Myki once again dominated complaints to the Ombudsman but for the third consecutive year the number dropped. This year, there was 36 per cent fewer grumbles.
MORE:
Gang members riding trains for free.
On the spot transport fines scrapped.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor ... 0235b66e5e,
People need to get loathing on the wane but ticket inspectors still a pain, report finds.
Has our myki outrage peaked?
The state's public transport watchdog says it has, noting in its latest annual report a 36 per cent drop in complaints about the ticketing system.
Complaints to the Public Transport Ombudsman about authorised officers are on the rise. Photo: Eddie Jim.
But we still don't like it much.
It remained the biggest source of gripes to the Public Transport Ombudsman the report for 2015-16 shows, with most people aggrieved by problems with refunds and reimbursements, ticketing staff and myki accounts.
There were 1176 myki issues raised with the Ombudsman this year, compared with 1610 in 2014-15, the report shows.
It also reveals a 16 per cent increase in complaints made against authorised officers, the staff who patrol the network checking myki cards and monitoring commuter behaviour.
Most of those complaints concerned accusations of heavy-handed and unwarranted treatment by the officers, Ombudsman Treasure Jennings said..
"Several complainants said they felt intimidated. More work needs to be done in this area to ensure AOs have adequate support and the right skills to interact with the community in an effective and fair way," Ms Jennings said.
She said it was troubling that her office had received so many complaints about authorised officers, 282 in all, given they have been the subject of three previous investigations by Victoria's Ombudsman, culminating in an announced overhaul of the fare enforcement regime by the Andrews government in May.
"Given that the recent review of the enforcement regime states that only around 1.7 per cent of the population deliberately fare evade, it seems incongruous to have this level of negativity in the community," Ms Jennings said in her foreword to the annual report.
Slow Myki card readers have infuriated passengers across Melbourne for years.
Myki complaints fell 36 per cent in a year.
The $75 on-the-spot penalty fares, which will be phased out on January 1 as part of the overhaul, also drew many complaints. There were 209 complaints made, a 28 per cent increase on the previous year.
The report detailed the experience of tram commuter "Helen", who complained to the Ombudsman because she felt pressured into paying an on-the-spot penalty on board a tram.
"She described the interaction as humiliating and intimidating," the report said. "She told us that ultimately she paid the penalty fare because she did not want to provide her personal details to the AO in front of fellow travellers, and was not given the option of getting off the tram to provide her details."
Victoria's Public Transport Ombudsman is an independent watchdog funded by the government agencies and operators it handles complaints about, including Public Transport Victoria, Metro Trains and Yarra Trams.
In 2015-16 there was a rise in complaints about Yarra Trams and V/Line, whose passengers suffered a severe train shortage over summer due to problems with wheel wear, and fewer gripes against Public Transport Victoria and Metro Trains.
The Level Crossing Removal Authority and the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority both joined this year, so the Ombudsman could also deal with any complaints raised during construction of those projects.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/myki- ... sqqn8.html.