myki has been in place as Melbourne’s public transport ticketing system for over a decade. It has benefits and drawbacks that could take up space for many posts. But in this one I want to focus on answering one apparently difficult question – what exactly is a 2 hour myki fare?
With myki, there are two fare types that you can use with ‘myki money’ – i.e. topping up as you go rather than purchasing a ticket for a fixed period. These are daily and 2 hour.
This is calculated using the times when the system detects your myki card. With myki, you must touch on by tapping your card to a reader every time you start a trip. In most, but not all cases, you also need to touch off.
When PTV introduced 2 hour fares as part of myki there was a grace period built in. This meant that your ticket would be valid for more than two hours – sometimes up to almost three.
Since August 2014, this has been changed to last exactly two hours.
The confusion here mainly lies with when exactly this two hour period begins and ends.
As usual, the PTV website is of no help at all. In several places, it states conflicting, incorrect or confusing information when trying to explain. For example:
“2 hour myki money fare between where a customer boards and the zone at the end of the service.Cell [sic]”
https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/tickets/fares/metropolitan-fares/
“Your first touch on creates a 2 hour fare. If you’re still travelling after 2 hours, you’ll be charged a daily fare.”
https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/tickets/myki/buy-a-myki-and-top-up/myki-money/
This doesn’t really help to answer the question. In fact, the second statement is wrong.
To find the answer, we have to go digging around in the 128-page Victorian Fares and Ticketing Manual.
On page 44 we find:
“Within the zone(s) covered by it, the 2 hour product authorises travel that extends beyond the time of its expiry, as long as the myki is touched on before that expiry, subject to the Conditions in this Chapter.”
Victorian Fares and Ticketing Conditions 2022
What does this mean?
The 2 hour period for your myki fare begins and ends from when you touch on your card, not touching off.
For example, you touch on at 10:00am on a 903 bus at Box Hill. You alight at Northland Shopping Centre at 10:45am. You do some shopping, catch up with friends, contemplate life – whatever. You then catch a bus back to Box Hill and touch on your myki at Northland at 11:45am – so one hour and 45 minutes after you first touched on at Box Hill. So even though this bus arrives back at Box Hill at 12:30pm and you touch off outside of the 2 hour period, you will only be charged a 2 hour fare.
Makes sense? Hopefully that helps to clear things up a little bit. If you still have any questions, let me know in the comments below and I’ll try to help as best as I can.
Note: there are some situations where a 2 hour fare will be valid for longer than two hours – for example, early bird on trains. For the purposes of this post I’m only talking about a ‘regular’ 2 hour fare outside of these exceptions. If you want to know more about these, start on this page on the PTV website: https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/tickets/myki/travel-with-myki/travel-benefits/
Leave a Reply