Myki Is Scrapping On-The-Spot Fines To Better Target Fare Evaders
If you're caught without a ticket, the only option is the $223 fine.
After a review of Victoria’s public transport system, the Andrews government will be canning the $75 on-the-spot Myki fines, with ticket inspectors now exclusively handing out $223 infringement notices and keeping a record of fare evader’s ticket dodging. This means that if you are fined, your only option is to pay a pretty hefty fine, or take your chances contesting it in court. The new system will be in place from next year.
Gotta love that public transport life.
The review found that the current system was “unfair, confusing and ineffective”— which a lot of Victorians would agree with, but perhaps for different reasons — and that it punished regular Myki-buyers and rewarded commuters who would rather risk a few on-the-spot fines rather than buy a ticket, because it works out cheaper. When you pay the immediate fine there is no record kept of your fare dodging.
Apparently this move aims to lessen the blow for regular commuters who have just made a mistake or fallen victim to a dodgy Myki machine (they also promised to decrease the 24-hour online top-up waiting time to 90 minutes) but it seems like it’ll still be up to the discretion of ticket inspectors themselves. The review also stated that people often felt pressured into paying immediately, or could not afford to pay the $75 fine and spent months defending their honest claim in court.
According to Fairfax, last December there were a total of 40,000 challenges to Myki fines. It’s hard to know if this will increase or decrease now that the on-the-spot option has gone.
Watch out for that plain-clothes, yo.