FIT2005 Semester 2, 2012 Assignment 1

Clients Responses to Questions From Your Software Company This document contains a sampling of the questions asked by students, and the response from the client organization. The colour of the text for each response indicates how you should treat the information as you proceed with the rest of the assignment, according to the following scheme: Key to font semantics: Bold Black Text a question posed by a student Plain Black Text the response, which you need to understand as this information will likely be needed for you to adequately complete the assignment. i.e. treat this as though it was in the original case description. Green Text general remarks given from a purely teaching/learning perspective.

When you say stored-value card. Is the information stored on the card itself or just a customer reference to our system where the actual data is stored? The card itself will store limited information, due to its small memory capacity, but all information about the card will need to be recorded in the centralized server. Thus the central server will have a master log of all transactions, but the card itself will have just some information. Once a journey has expired, its information could be removed from the card, but would remain on the server. (For the assignment, assume a perfect-world scenario where every reader has continual connection back to the central server. You should assume that basic information about recent/current journeys and finances and policy/rule settings is stored on the card). What is to occur if a reader on a vehicle does not have internet connectivity at the time of a tapping a card to it? (For this assignment, assume the perfect-world of continuous connectivity, therefore). It behaves as though it were connected back to the server What do you mean by keep track all of the details of issued cards? Each card has an electronic identification number (EIN). This is used to identify the card in all communications between it and the server. Additionally, each card has a maximum lifespan of 5 years, after which it ceases to be reliable and so we insist that it must be replaced. Thus the EIN and the date of manufacture are the primary details needed. Additional information would link a particular card to a particular person. Can you give more details about the manner by which a traveller can obtain a travel card? In order to get a travel card, a person will need to go to one of the Transport Information Offices (TIOs). These are found at all Train Stations, all Ferry Terminals, and at all Bus Ports. The TIO staff member who serves the person will request the details of the person who is buying the card. The person must give their name, so that the serial number of the card can be associated to the person. It is optional for the person to also provide their date of birth or an address, verified by
FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions Page 1/18

some sort of ID such as a drivers licence, which can be used in case of reporting a lost card to verify the veracity of the reporting. Is there a limit to the value amount a person can have stored on their card? The maximum amount we want to allow a person to have stored on the card should be 200. How do people add value to their card? They can go to a payment machine, which is a special machine that incorporates a card-reader and a money-change mechanism. By inserting their card, and inserting money, the machine will take the money and add an equivalent amount of value to the card, provided it does not exceed the limit of 200. These machines are located at train stations, bus ports, and ferry terminals. Also, we will allow people to register their credit-card details with us so that they can automatically add value by having us charge their credit card when the amount on the card goes below a certain amount chosen by the traveller, called the trigger point. The lowest value that the trigger point can be set to is $10, thus if the cost of any fare would take the balance of the card below the trigger point, at that moment the system will charge the credit card. (For this assignment assume the verification of credit availability on the credit card will always succeed.) The process of adding value to the card is also called topping-up the card with value. As an example, one traveller may choose that whenever the balance of value on the card goes below $15, that another $40 should be added to the travel card, by automatically charging to the credit card which is stored in the system as being for that traveller card. How does a traveller use their credit card to add value? They could go to a TIO and use their credit card over the counter, just as they could for cash. It would also be helpful if the website allows a traveller to add value to their card by providing creditcard details and specifying an amount for a one-off transaction. The website should also provide a mechanism by which the traveller can self-register the details of their credit card or they can go to a TIO and let one of our staff enter the details for them. In any case, the actual charging occurs whenever the card is read by a reader and the outcome is that the balance is below the trigger point currently set for the card. Does the travel card keep a record of the credit card details? No, but the servers of the system should, and these details should be encrypted when stored, and firewalled, for protection from system-intruders. Will there be discounted ticket fares for any subgroups of the travelling population, for example pensioners, concession card holders, students etc.? Yes. Each stored-value card will need to record whether the registered owner of the card is eligible to discounted travel. Although there are many different ways by which a person can qualify for concession, there is only 1 discount rate: 40%. Some of the concessions must be renewed each year. For example, the students concession expires at the end of January each year, and proof of being a student must be given to a TIO for the discount to be re-enabled. Concessions for elderly people should not expire once applied.
FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions Page 2/18

What about for staff of the PTO will they get a discount? In general, staff who travel on transport will be expected to pay for their travel just as normal people do. However, there may be occasions where as part of their job they require to be able to gain access through a gate, and so a special purpose card should be issued to these staff. The only difference is that these cards do not store any monetary value, but at every reader machine they will behave as though they have paid for travel in the current zone. What happens if a traveller loses their travel card and there was significant value still stored on the card? If a traveller realises that they no longer have their card, they should be able to any Transport Information Office (TIO) and report it lost. After verifying the details of the traveller against any previously provided information, such as their birthdate or address, and confirming this against some form of ID they possess, then the previously issued card should be disabled, and the balance transferred to a new card which is to be recorded as associated with the traveller. The traveller will still have to pay for the cost of the new card. For those travellers who have registered to use the online web system, they should be able to select an option to report a card as missing. As soon as this is done, the card should be disabled, and they will need to go to the TIO in order to get a new card and have the remaining balance transferred to it. Can you please clarify how the charging of fares should work? For example, for every additional zone after the 3rd additional zone is there any further discount on the additional zones? Or is it just a flat rate of $2.55? And can any zones be skipped? Examples would help. The cost of a fare for a journey depends on how many zones are covered, and whether or not zone 1 is included. If zone one is included, then an extra $2 is charged on top of what is otherwise calculated. To travel in one zone costs $3. So if you travel entirely within zone 2, or entirely within zone 5, this costs $3, and allows travel on all modes of transport for a period of 4 hours from the commencement of the journey. If you travel entirely within zone 1, this costs $5. If you travel from zone 2 to 3, or from zone 3 to 4, or from zone 11 to 12, this type of fare is said to cover 2 zones, not including zone 1. The first zone always costs $3. The next additional zone is $2.90. Thus each of these travel fares will be $5.90. If you travel from zones 1 to 2, because it includes zone 1, there is the extra $2 cost, so it will be $7.90. If your travel involves going through 3 zones, then next (2nd) additional zone is slightly less than the previous charge. The previous charge we just stated was $2.90, so this one will be $2.80. So a journey that goes between zone 4 and zone 6 will cost ($3 + $2.90 + $2.80) = $8.70, or between zone 1 and 3 will be $10.70 because of the $2 premium for zone 1 travel. If your travel involves going through 4 zones, then the additional charge is $2.55 compared to a 3zone fare. For 5 zones, then the additional charge is maybe $2.50 compared to the 4-zone fare. Each additional charge is slightly lower. Thus for 6 zones, maybe the next additional charge is $2.35; and maybe for 7 zones the next additional charge is $2.25. It always decreases. You cannot skip any zone. So for example, the Northern Line train route has a stop in zone 20, another in zone 16. To travel between these two stations it is not sufficient to have a 2-zone fare. You need a 5-zone fare. This is because there is a significant distance between those two stations. If you travelled on a bus between the two stations, there would probably be stops at towns between
FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions Page 3/18

Woodlands and Forest Edge, in various zones. Someone travelling between the same two places on Train should pay the same fare as those travelling by bus, or some other mode. How much should be charged when commencing a journey that has not been pre-paid? It depends mostly on the route. Some routes, such as regional town services, are wholly within a zone, so are simply charged for travel within that zone. However, if the route includes more than 1 zone, then the minimum that will get from the current zone to the farthest zone for the current route is charged. For example, the Bus Route from the City (zone 1) to the Airport (zone 4) has bus stops that are situated in zones 1 through 4. If a person boards the bus when in Zone 2, they should be charged for travel in three zones that covers zones 2 to 4. If they actually disembark before reaching zone 4, e.g. they disembark in zone 3, then their journey is adjusted to be only for zones 2 and 3, and the excess they had been charged is added back onto the card for the future. Similarly, the Northern Line has train stations in zones 1 and zones 20. I they get on at Old Goldfields which is in zone 14, they should initially be charged the cost of travelling to Zone 1. If they get on at Water Spring which is in zone 7, they should be charged the cost of travelling to zone 20, because that zone is more distant. It is also possible that a traveller could pre-pay for a specific set of zones. E.g. someone may want to travel from Old Goldfields (Zone 14) to Golden Beach (zone 8), and this requires a journey that will be for 7 zones not including zone 1, which is cheaper than if they were charged the full price of 14 zones including zone 1 which would be the default charge. Specifying specific zones (e.g. for 4 zones covering only zones 5 to 8) is possible, as well as leaving it open-ended. To pre-pay for a specific future journey, the person will have to go to the TIO (e.g. at the train station customer service counter), or hopefully they could do it on the internet if they have registered their card for internet access. Such pre-paid journeys can be set to be valid on a specific date, e.g. you could pay for the travel the day before the actual travel. Therefore, when you tap the card against the reader, the reader will always first check to see whether there is an already activated journey for the current zone; if not, then it checks to see if there is a suitable pre-paid journey ready to activate. If not, it will then check to see if there is enough value stored on the card for a default journey (e.g. as explained for the Bus to the Airport) in which case it will create the new default journey. Does the price of travel vary depending on the time of day of the travel? There is no difference in price, so no peak-time premium is ever charged. Is there a minimum amount that must be available on the travel card to be able to commence a journey? If after all the checks for existing or pre-paid journeys fail, and it is deemed that a new journey must be charged for, the system will check whether the card is registered for automatic top-up via a credit card. If so, then value should be added to the card according to the amount that has been arranged with us by the traveller, and the credit card will be charged. (If the credit card is expired, we will not add value to the card). But if the card is not registered for automatic top-up, and there is not enough value to cover the default journey, then the reader will inform the traveller that they are
FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions Page 4/18

not permitted to travel due to insufficient value on the card, and no new journey is to be recorded on the card or in the system. If a person touches on, but does not touch off within a designated period of time, should they be charged a penalty fare? From the time they tap the reader to commence a journey, they have 4 hours (exactly 240 minutes) to complete their journey. This initial tap is sometimes called a touch on or tap on, because it is done as you are getting on the vehicle or on to the platform. If within that 4 hour time period they tap a reader again, provided the reader was one belonging to the same mode of transport, it will be assumed that you are ending a leg of the journey, and this is sometimes called a touch off or a tap off. If you tap a reader, and it is for a different mode of transport that the mode which the system thinks you are on, it is interpreted as a tap on and the system assumes that you touched-off the previous leg in the same zone as you are in when this new tap-on occurs. If you tap off at some point that is later than 4 hours since the original tap on, the system considers that you have commenced another journey, and deems this journey to have started at the time when you most recently tapped-on. So for example: 10:00am 10:20 1:55pm 2:15pm 3:00pm 3:10pm tap on in zone 5 start of journey 1 tap off in zone 7 tap on in zone 7 considered to be part of journey 1 still tap off in zone 5 considered to be part of a new journey (2), which began at 1:55. tap on in zone 5 considered to be part of journey 2. tap off in zone 5 considered to be part of journey 2.

If a person wants to cancel a journey, can they tap off again within a set period of time to cancel that journey? Would it have to be the exact same reader? Yes, if a person taps their card within a time limit, at a reader designated to be at the same place, then the preceding tap on is ignored. If any charge had been incurred, it is refunded now (added back to the card). The time limit is 15 minutes for a train station or ferry terminal, and 1 minute for a bus or tram. By place is meant either a particular ferry station or ferry terminal, and in the case of readers on vehicles, all readers are considered to be in the same place, but each time the doors open after the vehicle has moved, the place has changed. So using a vehicle to go just one stop is considered non-revocable travel. Are there places that are multi zoned? No place on a single route is considered to simultaneously be within two zones. However, some bus routes may consider certain bus stops to be in different zones compared to other routes that have the same bus stop. Thus it is possible that someone who gets on a bus at one stop, and gets off at the next stop just a few hundred meters down the road, will could be considered to have travelled within two zones, because a zone boundary had been crossed.
FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions Page 5/18

It is also possible that if they change buses at a bus port such as at a shopping centre, that the second bus will consider that location to be in a different zone. This even applies at train stations (interchange stations only), where the same station may be considered to be in different zones, but this will force passengers to actually change from one service to another by passing through gates, thus ending one journey and commencing another journey. But on a single route, no train station is considered to be in two zones simultaneously. Zones 5 & 6 are not in the list of stations for the Northern Line, so does that mean that they are located in another part of the state (Southern Line for example)? How many zones are there, and where are they all located or how are they distributed? Zone 1 is the inner part of the capital city, approximately 10km diameter. Zone 2 surrounds zone 1 so it is like zone 1 is the hole in a doughnut, and zone 2 is the doughnut. Zone 3 surrounds zone 2, Zone 4 surrounds zone 3, Zone 5 surrounds zone 4. Only places on land are assigned to being in zones. Thus a ferry journey is determined only by the zones of its start and end points of the route. The exact width of each zone varies, and can vary at different points of the compass. E.g. zone 2 may be 20km wide in the west but only 10km wide in the East. The exact width is determined by factors such as population density, density of the availability of transport services, age of infrastructure that provides transport services in that zone, cost of providing transport service in that area. The reason why Northern Line has no stations in zone 5 or 6, is that in the region between Greater Lakes and Water Springs, where the train line goes, there are no major populations, just farmland, and this does not warrant the provision of a station. The reason why Water Springs is said to be in zone 7 and not 5 is due to the distance of it from Greater Lakes, and the need to charge a reasonable amount for the cost of the infrastructure and running costs to provide a service over that distance. When changing Zones, do you have to go in order (i.e. ascending or descending order) or can you jump around? For example: From Zone 3 to Zone 7 to Zone 5. Due to the way the zones are designed as completely enveloping the ones with lower number, it is not possible to jump around from one stop to the next. Most routes are designed so that in one direction of travel the zones only ever increase (thus the other direction of travel they only ever decrease). If there is a route which due to an anomaly momentarily has to move into an adjacent zone (e.g. it was in zone 5, but for two stops goes into zone 6, before moving back to zone 5, geographically), the route will have been specified to have treated all the stops in the one zone. E.g. the bus doing the route will know that All my stops until XXX are in zone 5 even though geographically at one point earlier than XXX several were on the border of/just inside of, the other zone. As mentioned earlier, a single stop may be treated as being in a different zone by different routes (e.g. bus 313 may treat a particular stop as zone 5, but bus 314 might treat it as being in the adjacent zone 4 or 6). These tend to occur where routes terminate or touch other routes.

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 6/18

Can you give more explanation about how you want to treat a Journey that involves several modes of transport within the 4 hours? Also, demonstrate how pre-paid journeys impact the fares charged. Example 1: The following shows an example of a persons travel in a single day. 9:00am 9:05am Pre-pay for 2 journeys covering 6 zones not including zone 1 Activate card at Water Springs train station, Zone 7. The system determines that there are no journeys activated on the card that could be continued at this time. But the system should detect that there is a pre-paid journey on the card that could be used, so it activates that journey, noting that it includes zone 7. It can be used to travel to either zone 2 or 12. If they are found by a Ticket Checking Officer in a zone outside that range, they will be fined. Get Off at Eltham Train Station, in Zone 2. Since this is a permitted zone, all is well. At this point the system will determine that the journey has to include zones 2 through 7. Get On bus 552 at Eltham Bus Port (which is co-located with Eltham Train Station).The bus route goes from Wilson (Zone 1) to Protea (Zone 3), but the bus is travelling in the direction of Protea so the system checks that there is a journey that covers the current zone and the farthest zone of this route. There is, and it has not expired, so the system considers the 9:05am journey is continuing but now on a new mode of transport. No new charges are incurred.

9:45am

9:53am

10:25am Get off bus at Waterford Shopping Centre, in Zone 3. 4:02pm Get on bus 552 at Waterford Shopping Centre. Since it has been more than 4 hours since the 9:05, the system will consider a 'new journey' is beginning the earlier journey has expired. Since the bus goes through to zone 1, even though there is still a prepaid journey covering 6 zones not including zone 1 because the person may travel into zone 1, it does not activate that pre-paid journey. It ensures that there is enough value on the card for a journey provisionally through to zone 1. Get off bus at Eltham Bus Port (Zone 2). Because the journey had provisionally been to zone 1, but we have ended before zone 1, it now determines that there is no need to charge for the whole way to zone 1. Thus it refunds the excess compared to a journey that covers 2 zones not including zone 1, but including zone 2 and 3. Use travel card to gain entry to platforms at Eltham Train Station (Outbound). Because we are starting a trip, the system again checks the card to see if there is any travel permitted for the current zone. There is the 2-zone journey that began at 4:02, it is still valid. Because this journey is currently active, the system chooses to reactivate this journey. A Ticket Checking Officer gets on the train at Greater Lakes station. Their equipment is configured to check that each travel card is activated, and that a journey for travel between zones 4 and 7 has been paid (because that is the current segment of the route that is being travelled).
Page 7/18

4:33pm

4:35pm

4:55pm

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

4:57pm

At some point before getting to Water Spring station they check the example persons card. The TCOs reader determines that the travel card has been activated for travel. This is the first hurdle passed. However, because the journey that is current was only covering 2 zones (zones 2 and 3), the system must perform additional checking It checks to see whether there is any pre-paid journey that is not yet activated but which could have been that would make the current travel permitted. In this case, it detects that there is still a prepaid journey covering 6 zones not including zone 1. The current journey that the card is activated for is able to be upgraded to that journey, and so at this point, the system replaces the current 2 zone journey with the pre-paid journey, and refunds the cost of the 2-zone journey, and it ensures that the pre-paid journey includes zones 2 and 3. (Since it includes 2, and it explicitly excludes zone 1, it automatically determines now that the maximum zone for which it is valid is zone 7). The system now checks whether this upgraded journey is valid. It is, thus the second hurdle is met that the journey covers the current zones required to be covered. So the TCO moves on to the next person.

5:20pm

Get Off train at Water Springs station, in zone 7. Upon tapping the card against the reader at the exit gate it determines that we are still within the parameters of the pre-paid journey that begun at 4:02, covering zones 2 through 7. Go once more to the Water Springs Station, now with the intention of going further outbound. Water Springs Station does not have the capability of determining whether someone is going in towards the city or outwards. (Whereas Eltham Station has separate platforms). Thus the reasoning of the system is as follows: Because we are starting a journey, the system again checks the card to see if there is any travel permitted for the current zone. There is the 6-zone journey that began at 4:02, it is still valid, for zones 2 to 7, And there are now no unused prepaid journeys. The system provisionally chooses the 6-zone journey that began at 4:02, because it is possible that the person is travelling back through the zones that it is valid for. Another Ticket Checking Officer boards the train, this time at Golden Beach. The reader is configured to check that journeys between zones 8 and 10 are covered. The TCOs reader determines that the travel card has been activated for travel. This is the first hurdle passed. However, because the journey that is current was only covering (zones 2 through 7), the system must perform additional checking (2nd hurdle) It checks to see whether there is any pre-paid journey that is not yet activated but which could have been that would make the current travel permitted. In this case, it detects that there is no such pre-paid journeys. Thus the second hurdle fails there is no current journey that is valid for the current zone. Because the customer had correctly activated the card when they got to the station at 7:00, (i.e. because the first hurdle has been met) the system has to do further checking before deeming the travel to be invalid (3rd hurdle) It checks whether the card has sufficient value to upgrade the current journey to include the current zones. In this case the current zones are 8 through 10. If there is sufficient value, or if there was insufficient value but the person had registered for automatic topping-up of the value from their credit card, then the hurdle is passed the journey is upgraded and the cost incurred and the credit card

7:00pm

7:05pm

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 8/18

is charged any relevant amount to meet criteria. But if the person had not registered for automatic topping-up, and there was not sufficient value on their card to upgrade the journey, then this third hurdle fails and the traveller is issued with a fine. If the customer had not activated the card at 7:00 (e.g. by jumping over the barricade), they would not have passed the first hurdle and would immediately have been issued with a fine. 7:45pm The person gets off the Train at Dusty Plains. Since their current journey has already been upgraded to include zone 10, no further actions occur, other than to note that the travelling has ended (for now).

9:00 pm The person gets back to the Train station at Dusty Plains (zone 10). There is no journeys that are still active (the 4:02pm one has now expired). Also, there are no pre-paid journeys that could be chosen. Thus, the default fare is going to be charged. The farthest point on this route is zone 20 away, thus an 11-zone ticket would be required in the worst case. The system checks that there is enough value on the card (otherwise it will at this point automatically top-up the card to have more value) to start an 11-zone journey, and includes zone 10 as definitely covered. 9:43pm The person gets back to Water Springs station (zone 7). As they exit the station, it determines that a trip is concluding. Because the journey had provisionally been for 11-zones, it now determines that travel only needed to be for 4 zones, so it refunds the amount that had been overcharged, and the journey is noted as permitting travel between zones 7 and 10 through until 1:00am of the next day.

You have stated that if the person uses the transport 4 times in one week that the remainder of the week will be free for the same zone. Is that a calendar week or say they use it Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Do they only get Saturday free or will it be till next Tuesday? Please give further detail about this. Example 2: Say there is a person who on Tuesday morning goes from Gordon (Zone 4 on the Midlands train line, see back of document) to Coronation (Zone 2 on the Midlands train line). Monday was a public holiday so they stayed at home. They are registered for automatic top-up of value on their card. They do not pre-pay for the journeys so just rely on the their card being activated for a journey when they tap their card against the reader at Gordon Station, and then when they tap the card at Coronation the machine determines that they have made a journey covering 3 zones, including zones 2 to 4. They will have been charged $8.70 That night after work, they tap the card at Coronation, and again at Gordon, and the system determines that this covers the same zones as earlier in the day, so they are charged a discounted fare. The discount for same-day is currently 10%, so this time they are charged $7.83 and if by chance they traveled in the same manner in a third 4-hour period on the same day, they would be charged another $7.83; However, if they made a journey in a third period that was between zone 4 and zone 6 (so it is still covering 3 zones), because the zones are not an exact match as the earlier travel, they will be charged the $8.70 for this journey.

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 9/18

On Wednesday they make the same journey morning journey from Gordon to Coronation, and are charged a final amount of $8.70; again to go home they go from Coronation to Gordon, and thus get charged $7.83. On Thursday they do the exact same again, and get charged $8.70 in the morning and $7.83 at night. On Friday they do the exact same again, and get charged $8.70 in the morning and $7.83 at night. The next Monday, they travel in exactly the same way. But this is what happens: In the morning they tap the reader at Gordon. At this point in time, the last seven days extends back to the Tuesday which began this example. But, as always, the system provisionally assumes the worst that they are going to the farthest destination (i.e. Zone 1), so charges $13.25 (4 zones, including zone 1). When they get to Coronation and tap the card, the system will determine that the provisional charge had been too much, that the journey should be just a 3 zone journey, covering zones 2 through 4). At this point, the system will notice that this is the same kind of journey as has occurred on 4 other days within the past 7 days from today, and thus it adjusts the cost to be $0, but keeps the journey as current (as a 3-zone journey for zones 2 through 4). Likewise, on that Monday night, when the tap the reader at Coronation, the system charges the default fare for travel to the farthest zone (which is zone 4). Since Coronation is in zone 2, it charges for a journey covering 3 zones including zone 2 to 4. It does not at this point automatically recognise that such a journey would be free, because it is still possible that the person is going to travel to zone 1, or only as far as zone 3. But when they get off the train at Gordon, and tap their card against the reader, the system can establish that the journey was definitely from zone 2 to 4, and at that point it can determine that this journey was eligible to be for free. Assume now, that on this second Monday, at 9:09pm the person now gets on a bus in Gordon (zone 4) that is route 613 to Carlisle (Zone 5), because they are going to the cinema to watch a movie. As always the system checks whether there is a journey activated already on the travellers card that might be valid. So the system checks the card to see if there is any travel permitted for the current zone. The free journey between zones 2 and 4 is permitted, and since the current zone is zone 4, the system optimistically assumes that travel will be wholly within zone 4. But when they tap their card against the reader when getting off in Carlisle, the system concludes that the 3-zone journey covering zones 2 through 4 is not appropriate. Therefore it will instead record a new journey, covering just 2 zones, including zones 4 and 5, and records the 4-hour period as having commenced at 9:09pm. The system charges for the cost of this new journey ($5.90 for a 2-zone journey). After the movie finishes at 11:00 they board a return-bus on the same route. Since there is a current journey that covers the current zone (zone 5), the system selects that journey. When they get off back in Gordon, there is no charge, because they are still in a zone covered by the same journeys settings. So the total cost for Monday was 5.90, whereas for the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the cost each day was 16.53. Now, the next day is Tuesday again. In the morning they go to Gordon train station and tap the reader. At this point in time, the last seven days extends back only to Wednesday. When they tap the reader at Coronation after getting off the train, the system determines the journey to have covered zones 2 through 4. But there has only been 3 days in the last seven days where payment has been charged for travel that covered zones 2 through 4 (even though there has been 6 individual charges: the morning and the evening on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday), since Mondays journeys were not charged-for. Therefore this journey will be charged at $8.70.
FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions Page 10/18

Now that night (2nd Tuesday night), when they tap on at Coronation, then tap off at Gordon, and the system determines that they have travelled between zones 2 and 4, they are eligible for a reduced charge. Since they have travelled between these same zones on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and also this morning, this meets the criteria of 4 distinct days, and so this evening journey is free. On Wednesday, due to travel on the previous Thursday, Friday and yesterday (the 2nd Tuesday), because it is only 3 days, the morning trip is not eligible for being free, and is charged ($8.70); but the evening trip is free for the same reason as the night before. Hopefully this clears up any confusion, and does not introduce new confusion. Do you want to track which type of public transport the traveller uses? The system should record every time that the traveller taps their card against a reader. The system should know where the reader was e.g. was it on a bus (and if so, which bus stop was it nearest), was it at a train station. Where the reader is located at the time of tapping the card will determine the zone. So the system should be able to record details about what type of transport the traveller has been using. Note that although we know which cards are used in which places, we will not conduct any profiling about individual travellers. Staff from the PTO will only be able to see the travel history of a traveller, when the traveller makes a specific request to review the transactions for their card. What sort of information do you need to keep track of for the assets/devices? As there will be thousands of readers, we need to know exactly where they are. Some will be installed at train stations, ferry terminals, on actual buses and actual trams/cable-cars. Apart from the ones installed on vehicles, we will need to know what zone they are in. The ones on vehicles will communicate with a GPS system installed on the vehicle that is able to report the current location of the vehicle. Based on the current location, the zone can be determined. How are fines to be dealt with? What happens if the person has no travel card? If a traveller is found by the Ticket Checking Officers that has either not got a travel card, or who has a travel card but has not properly activated it for the current journey or fails the hurdles, then the officer will write out the details of the fine, and record the personal information about the traveller on the fine, which is a piece of paper (a carbon copy of which is kept by the officer). Fines are very expensive, and cannot be paid for using the travel card; they must be paid separately at a TIO or else be contested at a court. The cost of a fine is the same for everyone, and it is set by the government annually. A traveller should not be able to see any details of the fines they may have been issued with when they are looking at the web system. However, the TCOs will record incident reports in the system. An incident report is simply a recording of the time and place of an occurrence of them issuing a fine. The system will be able to report statistical information about how many fines occurred on a given day, possibly narrowed down to specific route or time period.

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 11/18

Is it possible to activate the card for a journey whilst already in transit in order to avoid fines or if the customer forgot while embarking? No. When getting on a bus, the driver will usually insist that you activate the card or else you will be asked to leave. Many train stations and all ferry terminals have barricades that prevent you from getting near the transport vehicle without having activated the card. But for the rare few places where it would be possible to get onto the transport vehicle without activating the card, (e.g. a tram/cable-car), a person may delay in activating. If they are seen to be trying to activate it by a TCO then the TCO may fine the traveller. Can a passenger have his/her card removed from the system on a temporary or permanent basis? A card can be reported as lost. Once reported, it will not be able to be used to gain access through barricades, and will not be able to be activated for travel. It can be subsequently reactivated if the traveller provides sufficient ID to one of the Transport Information Offices that proves their identity and once the staff member confirms that they have the card. Note that if when a TCO checks a card, if the card has been reported as lost, then this will be reported on the display of the reader that the TCO is using. If an error occurs during a transaction, for example $100 instead of $10 was added to the card, when only $10 was paid to a machine or specifying in a top-up request submitted via the web site, is a refund possible? If so, who has permission to give the refund? It should be possible for TIO staff to alter the value that a card is attributed to have, but this can only occur at one of the offices, and before the change is accepted, a second TIO staff member must concur the approval of the alteration. The staff ID of both staff members will be noted in the transaction for possible auditing. The alteration would appear on transaction statements viewable by the traveller as well as those viewable by the TIO staff. What type of statistical reports about the journeys and fines are needed? The main reports will be reports on such things as: For a given station, how many people commenced, or terminated, at it. For a given route, how many people used the route, how many were fined on the route.

These reports should cover periods from as small as one hour to as much as 1 year, with appropriate intermediate periods being: morning peak, afternoon/evening peak, day, week, month. So, for example, we would like to know how many people used Bus Route 552 over the course of a whole week. How often do you want the system to produce statistical reports about journeys and fines? Whenever a staff member with the relevant authority asks. Are all the modes of transport charged at the same rate? Yes. Charges will be based purely on the number of zones through which travel occurs.
FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions Page 12/18

Do you want the passengers to activate the card by putting the card to the reader both at the start and at the end of travelling, or just once at the start of travelling? What happens if they do not touch the reader at the end of travelling. The traveller is supposed to touch their card to the reader when they enter or leave a bus, tram, train station or board the ferries. This is because the system will need to know if they activated the card for the current trip. If for some reason they do not touch their card to the reader at the end of the trip (e.g. when getting off a bus, or when leaving the train station, etc.), there are possible ramifications to the traveller. Firstly, at most train station, there are barricades which will not open unless you touch the card to the reader. Secondly, if the journey was not a pre-paid one, then the default journey as explained earlier for the Airport Bus route applies. Because the default fare can be more expensive than the zones you actually travelled for, if you do not touch off the mode of transport you will pay that full default fare, even if you subsequently touch on to another mode of transport in a zone that is closer to the start of the current journey because refunds are given only if you touch off. Are the prices the same between zones for bus, train and ferry? The price of travel in zones will be the same regardless of what mode of transport is taken. Thus, for travel within zone 3 and no other zone, for full-fare person, cost $3 whether this travel is entirely on a bus, entirely on a train, or on a bus for part of the way and train for the remainder of the journey. Travel between zone 1 and 4 entirely by train would cost the same as travel between zone 1 and 4 entirely by ferry, and the same as if ferry was used between zones 2 and 4 and the train used between zones 1 and 2. So, the number of zones through which you travel is what determines the price (prior to any discount for which you are eligible). Will there be some sort of once-off single-trip pass? It seems illogical that someone must buy a reusable card if they are only visiting the city for the day. There probably would need to be, but such matters are not to be considered in the analysis of this system. Will transport run after midnight? If so will some compensation be given to those that may travel somewhere at say 7pm then travel home at 12am. Some transport does run after midnight. But as illustrated by the example given earlier, each journey is considered to last for up to 4 hours. Thus, a person could conceivably have many journeys in a single day that each are separately charged. This stating that a journey can last 4 hours, and that travel can involve multiple modes of transport, already gives significant advantage to travellers, compared to the alternative we originally considered that each single leg of a journey would incur costs to the traveller. How many people do you expect to use this system? Potentially several million people will possess a travel card on any given day; but not everyone of these people would use the card every day.

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 13/18

May a single traveller hold more than one travel card? Yes. For example, they may have one which their employer has given them for travel during business hours when on business (that the employer will pay for), and one which they have for their personal use (i.e. for non-business purposes). Can a single card be used for more than one person? A single card can be used by more than one person, but only one person can be using the card for a given journey. For example, a husband and wife could share the card between each other. But they cannot travel together using the one card for this they must use individual cards. Additionally, if the card is for someone who is entitled to discount fares (e.g. a student card, a pensioners card), the person using the card must fit the same criteria as the card is set up for (i.e. another student). What activities will TIO staff perform? NOTE: There are some activities which staff will need to be able to perform, which you are required to determine through thinking, and so which will not be written here, because your ability to identify them is assessed as part of criterion #3. The ones listed here are also only given at a high-level and may need further consideration by you In regards to interacting with customers, they will perform duties that include issuing travel cards to people who wish to buy them; being able to explain how the charges have been charged to their account; change the automatic value-adding (topping-up) settings; correct mistakes when satisfactory evidence has been provided to confirm the situation. Can you explain more about the organisation/structuring of the staff who work for the transport department? Are there any special needs for security with regard to restricting personnel from viewing certain reports or doing other things? The TIOs are manned by TIO staff, who are responsible for most customer relations functions (as outlined in the previous answer). The TCOs are a special group of employees who are only able to deal with checking that travelers have activated their cards, and recording details about fines. They cannot see reports about fines, but their bosses can. They cannot perform the tasks that the TIO staff can. Other staff work in the head office and depending on their role may be able to do the following: View reports Change data Maintain assets associated with the system.

An individual member of staff could perform different roles over time, but is always employed in one specific role at a time, and for a period of at least a few months. (e.g. a TCO may switch to being a TIO staffer at the start of next year.)

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 14/18

How far back should travel history be stored and which details should be recorded? The entire history of completed journeys should be recorded on the central server. It must be possible to audit the financial transactions of a given card to prove that the current balance is correct. However, a traveller who logs onto the web site, will only be able to see the last 80 journeys (including free ones). Do the readers have any other functions other than activating people's cards? Yes, the readers are the main element of the system that does the processing, and are the point of communication between the cards and the data servers. The readers work out the fare charges and notify the server of the details; and they are responsible for activating or selecting journeys that are on the cards. They are also the main user-interface to the system because their display screens tell the traveller the status of the balance of funds, and the validity of the journey, and how much time is left on the current journey so in a sense, the software you design is the software that will execute on the readers; as well as the software that will execute on the server. Are there any major differences between the fixed readers and the mobile readers which the TCO's have? Firstly, mobile could mean two things. The readers on buses are mobile, in the sense that the bus itself is mobile. But these readers are identical in behaviour to the readers that are permanently affixed at train stations (e.g. controlling the barricades that let you into the train station). The hand-held readers that TCOs have are different primarily in terms of the set of functionality (i.e. use cases) that are available. These readers are able to report on whether a card is valid/activated, or not; they are incapable of the functions of the normal readers. Then, the machines which accept money and add the equivalent value to your card are different again, in that they allow you only the functionality to add value to the card. So there is essentially three kinds of readers in the system. What sort of authentication is needed to use the 'mobile' readers that TCOs have. Are they set to a specific individual, or is it just an authentication setup? The TCO will need to tap their special employee version of the travel card to log in to their reader after turning on the power. The reader only lets current employees to gain access. Once this authentication has occurred, the TCO can use a touch-screen input to specify the configuration of which zones to check for, what route and mode of transport they are on. They simply turn off the device to logout Are the fare prices set individually for each reader? Or how do we account for changes to fares after the government reviews the prices each year? The readers are in constant connection with the main server. Thus if the prices of fares were to be changed by a staff member working at the head office, you can assume that the next time the reader communicates to the central point that it will be informed of the new prices. Usually the price change is scheduled to occur at some point in the future, such as at 3AM when there are no transport services running. Thus when the readers of buses are turned on the following morning, when they connect to the server the server will tell them the new prices.

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 15/18

How does the traveller gain access to their cards details on the web site? They will need to register an account which has a username/email and a password to gain access to the web site. They will need to link their card to their account. The card has a unique number printed on it, which the user can type in to add it to their online-account. It will need to be verified by a staff member during office hours to ensure that no other online-account has already linked the card; and to ensure that the name of who the card was issued to matches the name of the person who made the online account. Once verified, then the traveller will see the card as selectable when logged in. A mother may want to link all her childrens cards as well as her own card to her login account. Her husband could link his in the same online account as well. They can both log in, we dont have a problem with that. When performing actions in the online site, you usually have to select a particular card, e.g. to be able to do a one-off top-up of the value of a card, or to change the settings for an automatic top-up, or to view journey history, or to report the card as lost/missing. Is there an existing/known secure banking/credit card processing system that you would like us to integrate with, or are we writing you a new one? When we receive a customers credit card details for a once-off top-up of the value, or when there is an automatic charging of the customers credit card details, we utilize the secure payments system that our bank provides to all of its customers. You are not designing the system, but you can contact the bank to find out how to interact with their system. Are there any other existing systems besides the banks system, that we are required to integrate with? No. Although we have some other systems that deal with other aspects of our operation, we just want you to design the system that manages the charging of fares for journeys and which allows customers to manage their travel cards. Are there multiple companies who own the public transport systems that we must deal with? Is it important to track the distances travelled with different companies? Sometimes we do subcontract the provision of public transport to private companies, but the system is to be run by us. The statistics will help us to know whether particular routes are highly utilised which may influence how we pay those companies. Do you intend to introduce a specials system at any time in the future? Where, for example, you can travel between zones 7 and 11 between the 8th and 11th of December for 50% less than usual. No. But if we eventually do decide this, we may re-contract your software development company to implement this. Do you want to notify travellers by SMS or email warning that their card's prepaid credit is almost depleted, or that they are entitled to travel through specified zones for free for the remainder of the week? That could be nice but is not as important as ensuring that the charging for fares actually occurs and keeping track of where all the devices are installed.

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 16/18

For how long data will be stored on database, before it can be deleted? The law currently requires that all financial data must be kept for 7 years. We do not envisage needing to keep summary journey information for longer than this period. Will there be alerts from the system to the PTO staff about situations out-of-the-norm, such as if a traveller for 6 months has only ever travelled between zones 1 and 5, suddenly taps their card in zone 10? No.

Some other examples of routes for some services: Bus Route 552 Wilson Train Station to Protea Train Station (only major stops listed) Wilson Train Station Zone 1 Cloverleaf Zone 1 Black Forest Zone 2 Eltham Bus Port Zone 2 Angus Zone 2 Waterford Shopping Centre Bus Port Zone 3 Protea Train Station Zone 3

Bus Route 576 Waterford to Western Stadium (only major stops listed) Waterford Shopping Centre Bus Port Zone 4 Belmont Zone 4 Airlie Zone 4 Western Stadium Zone 4

Bus Route 613 Midlands to Hillcrest (only major stops listed) Gordon Train Station Zone 4 Breda Zone 4 Childrens Hospital Zone 5 Carlisle Shopping Centre Zone 5 Hillcrest Zone 5

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 17/18

Midlands Train Route (a Metropolitan line) City Central Zone 1 President Zone 1 City East Junction Zone 1 Princes Park Zone 1 Zoological Gardens Zone 2 Thornton Zone 2 Coronation Zone 2 Bellevue Zone 2 Armidale Zone 2 Governor Zone 3 Jubilee Zone 3 Aston Zone 3 Kryal Zone 3 Lawley Zone 4 Foster Zone 4 Gordon Zone 4 Melville Barracks Zone 4 Faraday Zone 4 Midlands Zone 4

End of Clients Response

FIT2005 S2 2012 Clients Response to Questions

Page 18/18