Free public transport in Melbourne? Maybe.....

Over at The Age is a story about yet another IT disaster when it comes to developing a new electronic ticketing systems for Melbourne.

Passengers face $500m ticket chaos talks about the 15 month over due 'mkyi' system still being MIA and the old MetCard system being about to fall over. They can't get any new machines for the slightly expanding network and some spare parts aren't available anymore.

Time to stop wasting money on ticketing systems and make public transport free.

It will never happen because the politicians are scared about having to spend a lot more money on expanding the transport network. The logic behind that is that if it's free, we all pay for it and therefore all suburbs deserve the equal service.

Now that would be progressive green politics, carbon friendly and just think how much closer the whole community will become from more BO on even more crowded trains...

Did you know the control system Metrol for the Met in Melbourne dates back from the 70's, it's why they can't increase the frequency of the network at least until when the new one, cough, is meant to go into service in 2010