City Rail Has Nothing On Tokyo’s PASMO
Ah, Sydney’s CityRail, I hate you for your expensive fares, old trains and inability to stick to your own timetable.
Tokyo’s subway system is so much cleaner, faster and more efficient, as I have just discovered while on my way to my first appointment. Plus you can get a PASMO pass. You use it to go anywhere on subway or bus. Just top it up whenever your credit is getting low and you’re good to go. But maybe someone more familiar with Tokyo’s subway system can help me out with this, what’s the difference between a ‘General’ pass and a ‘Personal’ pass. Isn’t that like six of one…?
Damian Francis is the editor-at-large for Australian T3 and contributing technology editor for GQ Australia. He is in Japan as a guest of Toyota Australia.
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Comments
Suica card is better than PASMO :P
I love how you can use the card at the 711/Lawsons/Family Marts…..
<3 Japan
If I recall correctly (it’s been a while since I’ve been to Japan) a personal pass requires personal information so it can be tracked if lost. The general one can be used by anyone (i.e. tourists).
I could be wrong though…
In Perth, TransPerth has had a similar system running for nearly 3 years… Use the same RFID card on the train, bus and ferry. You can even have it auto-load credit via a bank account when it gets low (which you can set up when you register the card online), or charge it up using multiple other methods when required.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartRider
Hong Kong’s Octopus card for MTR and everything else, just like cash. They are so popular everyone in HK has two of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card
Isn’t this the same as Brisbane’s Go Card?
As Victor said, the Suica card is better :) It works everywhere the Pasmo does and more.
I have it set up on my mobile phone, where the RFID chip is built in. I can just swipe my phone when I get on a train or buy something from a convenience store, or even at the university campus. Then I can check the balance, add credit, and see my history all on my phone.
Coming from Brisbane, I can see that the go card could become just as useful one day. The problem is that people just don’t seem to be buying go cards.
@ Jordan West
Travellers across SE Queensland, however reluctant they may have been until now to purchase go Cards, will be taking them up en masse when paper tickets are abolished across the TRANSLink network early next year.
I find my card really nifty, especially the “transfer interval” feature whereby you can make your return journey free of charge if you touch on with the card no more than 1 hour after touching off. (I wonder whether that “gap” will be closed next year.)
I live in Brisbane, and all I can say is that the Go Card is one of the most ill-conceived and costly rollouts of a proven non-performing technology.
1. The project of initiating the rollout was very poorly managed – who has a contract that says “if you don’t deliver and it takes longer, we will pay for the extra time?”
2. A miss-scan costs up to $10. Once at your destination, there is no way to rectify a miss scan – you’re boned.
3. The “Go” part is a misnomer. More people “Stop” when touching off to check the card’s status or whether their touch was correctly read. At peak times on the way home, there is a lineup of people waiting to touch off at the single terminal.
4. If you make more than commuter trips, weekly tickets are cheaper.
When an introduced tech blew budget, punishes people trying to do the right thing and is lacking in simple resources to provide commuters places to buy them, it’s not a wonder it isn’t widely supported.