I’ve written about broken Myki gates before, but the other day I found an example of evolution in action.
In the early days of the Myki rollout, defective ticket barriers were blocked with the same ‘No Entry’ signs used to close off defective sets of escalators.
As Myki failures increased, new ‘Temporary Unavailable’ flags in a natty Myki green were rolled out to stations.
And finally, the fancy looking Public Transport Victoria version.
It reads:
Gate not in use
Please go to next available gate
Public Transport Victoria apologises for any inconvenience caused
If only the design of the Myki gates themselves was evolving as quickly as the signs that are used to closed off defective examples!
To be fair, most of the faults with myki barriers are probably due to them being mistreated. I’ve seem people full on kick the barrier with their full force before.
Metcard barriers were not immune to faults – but finding a damaged set was rare:
I do wonder whether the Myki gates that replaced them are strong enough to stand up to the punishment put upon them by the scrotes of Melbourne.