General News
19 January, 2023
Letter to the Editor
If you are one of the many of us concession card holders who use our yearly four free travel vouchers for the V-Line and Ballarat train services, you will undoubtedly be encountering the new, vastly-improved system in the near future. Before you can...
If you are one of the many of us concession card holders who use our yearly four free travel vouchers for the V-Line and Ballarat train services, you will undoubtedly be encountering the new, vastly-improved system in the near future.
Before you can get any vouchers, now that they won’t come to you in an envelope through the post, the first step you will need to take is logging onto your computer and accessing the Victoria Transport System website.
Once there, it will announce to you the most exciting thing about this excellent new system: “The Free Travel Voucher program is going paperless”.
That, of course, is enough to send us into paroxysms of delight, because we all know that ‘paperless’ has got to be good for everyone. And once there, you then embark into a rabbit hole of confusion by clicking onto ‘Regional Tickets’.
There, you will find five sentences describing the two kinds of ticket you will need to travel, including Myki if you want to go farther than Ballarat.
All clear so far, but from then on everything has to happen online, if you happen to have a computer; that includes booking your seats and paying for your ticket.
No more going to see Craig and Erin at the newsagency and handing over your voucher that duly records your particular concession card number; that’s just so passe in this modern world.
What you take to Craig and Erin at the newsagency now is the very special, eight-number Booking Number that was sent to you after you negotiated the filling out of all the relevant travel information about your trip on your computer, again if you happen to have one.
When you take that magic number to the newsagency, will get your ticket that will let you get onto the V-Line coach from the Post Office. Phew.
If you don’t happen to have a computer, you can still go to Craig and Erin at the newsagency and it will only take them half an hour to go through the 20 steps necessary to access a ticket for you.
If you are going farther than Ballarat, that’s when you will need the Myki Card, which is a whole new challenge but still, other than your V-Line ticket, no paper! How good is this
paperless new, improved system?!
And the very best part of this new, vastly improved Travel Voucher system is that once you have registered, you can get your first free travel voucher… in May!