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Daily Discussion Thread: 🍅 Wed 13 Mar 2024 (aussie.zone)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Lucky for some. Number 13🍀

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

ranting about Adelaide

I don't think I like Adelaide. Why is their metro card system so rude?

When I visited I was 15, so I wasn't eligible for a child ticket (once you're 15 or older there you need a South Australian student ID). Today I found my metro card so was going to register it, but you can't register your card if you're under 18

Then in their terms and conditions they seem to be very set on a "NO REFUNDS" policy. Okay, I lied, you can actually get yourself a refund for whatever money you load onto it, but their policy is you have to die first. If you die, your "authorised representative" can go to them with a copy of your death certificate and a letter of administration. Are they really that desperate to hold onto the few measly dollars tourists put on their cards and don't use?

And their main train station makes me feel uncomfortable. I can't really describe why, it just makes me feel unwelcome and sketched out:

Other things I found weird, rude, or foreign about Adelaide:

you swipe your card on the train, rather than at the train station
they still take paper tickets on the trains, but you have to validate it by putting it into the metro card reader thing
they do take bank cards but only on trams, but then I think the trams are free so you don't need to anyway?
only some readers take certain types of tickets - on trams the front reader takes paper tickets and metro cards, but not bank cards. Then the middle reader takes bank cards and metro cards, but not google/apple pay. Then the back reader only takes metro cards
you have to buy a ticket for your bike
the penalty for fare evasion there is almost 5 times what it is here ($1,250 vs $280 here). And I think you get fined the same amount of you don't buy your bike a ticket
they don't call fines "fines", they call them an expiration ticket or something?
they put birds and shit on all their signs reminding you you're in South Australia, which ends up feeling like you're in papers please or another Soviet game based in the 70s/80s
also I think if you get an expiration notice they put in on your police record and then you forever have a criminal record and a $1.2k fine because your bike doesn't have a ticket
they put angry warning signs on literally everything. I don't understand how their signs feel like they're yelling at you but ours don't, but it seems to be the way it is
their bus stops have terms and conditions

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How can you hate Adelaide when The Fringe is on!? I just got back. Go see Colin Ebsworth's show Me, My Cult & I, and then Reuben Kaye's show Apocalipstik. Both were excellllllent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Who's the fridge

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Readers on the train sounds good to me. It works on trams just fine.
It sounds like you really want a smart ticket. I went to Radelaide for a long weekend a few years back, I suppose I just used paper tickets on the train. I don't remember. I don't remember hating the train system, either though.
I love your rant, and how much you care about stuff. But yeah, I go about the world utterly oblivious to that sort of thing. I wouldn't notice terms and conditions on a bus stop, for example.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

It actually wasn't meant to be a full blown rant, I was actually just going to complain about how you have to die before you get a refund from them, but then I started remembering all the other odd things they do.

Readers on the trains can work at first, but they're a dumb idea in the long run. It was probably deemed the cheapest option when they were rolling it out, but eventually they're going to need new trains. And every train has anywhere between 2-6 readers per carriage X 3 carriages (with the possibility of doubling to 6 cars in the future), so it would end up being cheaper to just put your 4 readers at each station. Also they have full blown top up machines on the carriages, which is nice, but takes away seats and standing room

Wow even this became a rant :/

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

I love this, Adelaide is the worst lol. I went in 2011 or 12 and it sucked then. Not surprised it still sucks.