By XAVIER SMERDON
WYNDHAM train users have been warned that they will no longer be able to buy Metcards as the ticket machines will be turned off to make way for new technology.
Transport Ticket Authority CEO, Bernie Carolan, said work will begin in the last week of February to turn off more than 470 Metcard ticket vending machines across the metropolitan public transport network.
Machines at the Werribee and Hoppers Crossing stations will stop selling tickets from the end of this month.
Mr Carolan said public transport users should prepare for the change by ensuring they understand the myki system and buying a myki in the coming weeks, as well as using up any Metcards they still have.
“As more sales channels are introduced there is ample opportunity for people to buy a myki and prepare for when Metcards are no longer being sold from machines at stations,” Mr Carolan said.
Metcard machines will only be removed from suburban railway stations when the myki machines at the station have been enabled to sell full fare myki cards.
Mr Carolan said concession passengers, in particular, need to prepare for the turning off and removal of Metcard ticket machines.
“When an unstaffed railway station is fully converted to myki, concession passengers without a myki will no longer be able to purchase a concession ticket at the time of travel,” he said.
“If a concession passenger has a myki they will be able to top it up at a myki machine and travel, but people new to myki will have to visit a staffed train station or a nearby retailer to purchase a concession myki if they don’t have one.”
For more information call 13 69 54.
