The state’s public transportation fare collecting system went down on Thursday, causing pandemonium in Melbourne’s transportation system.
The Myki outage prevented customers from getting on or off trains, trams, and buses around the city in the afternoon during rush hour.
In order to let commuters travel for free, operators had no option except to wave them past the barricades.
Metro Trains Melbourne apologized for the disruption, but said that the problem has been fixed.
Public Transport Victoria issued a statement stating, “We are aware of an outage presently impacting myki devices and are trying to restore service as quickly as possible.”
We appreciate the patience of the travelers while we try to fix the problem.
The ‘technical problem’ was also the subject of a statement from Metro Trains Melbourne.
“We are aware of a ticketing system problem that is affecting the network.”
“Our teams are looking into it right now, and our authorized personnel have been informed of the problem,” it says.
Later, according to Metro Trains, the system had been fixed, and all of Melbourne’s rail stations should now have functional Myki card readers.
»Melbourne Myki outage disrupts trams, buses, and trains«