Tips and tricks for using the Melbourne public transport system

A poster to the melbournemaniac Livejournal community has written a very cool guide with tips and tricks for using the Melbourne public transport system.

Some of the highlights:

*Validate (or purchase) your 2-hour tram ticket just after the hour, as it rounds up and you’ll get nearly three hours of travel out of it (ie a 2.10 pm ticket will be valid until 5pm)
*if you validate a 10×2 hour ticket twice in the same day it lasts until 3am
the following day – effectively it becomes a daily ticket. This makes the 10 x 2 ticket better value than buying the similarly priced 5 x daily tickets.
*If you have a weekly or monthly ticket that is _just_ zone 1 or 2, on a weekend it will be both – great value if you’re travelling across town to the footie on the weekend.
*If you validate a 2 hour ticket (also applies to 10×2 hourlies) after
6pm it lasts until 3am. Don’t buy a daily if you’re going to be out all
night, use a two hourly and validate post 6pm – another reason why a 10×2 hour ticket is better value than buying 5 daily tickets.

The guide also has a number of tips on how to avoid/sweet talk tram inspectors – but it’s also worth nothing that there’s a big crackdown on fare evaders at the moment, so trying to save money by skipping the tram fare probably isn’t worth it!
So that’s Melbourne. People from other cities – care to share your public transport tips? If I get enough of them I’ll do a roundup of the best tips for each town/city.

Public Transport Tips [Melbourne Maniacs]