Public Transport Victoria app 4+

Ever since upgrading my iPhone from iOS 16 to 17, using the app became more of a pain in the *#%<! Before upgrading, the favorite page would should my favorite stop (and it’s headed direction) its scheduled time, which now showing me —:—, forcing me to actually go an extra step and look at the actual train I want to look at time, which renders the favorite page useless at this point.

With the stops near my location or where I am looking at, I would be able to look at the closest stops near me and also go look around to see the other stops or even pinpoint where I want to go to/start the journey, now I can’t see other stops other than my location, and if I want to look at nearby stops, I have to zoom out and press the location button, but it doesn’t always show what I wanted to see, and only show stops in the area my screen is in, for example, I’m at the CBD, then I zoomed to see Coburg, I would see the stops around the edges of the screen of the location I am currently viewing, very annoying.

I tried calling PT on the phone, they told me to go to Southern X Station, then when I did, they said they couldn’t do much and told me to send an email, very frustrating, please fix this as not only me, but many others on iOS 17 most likely experiencing the same issue!

The PTV app use to be great! It use to be simple and efficient, telling you the closest options and when they come. It was simple and useful and had few issues to speak of. Use to. Now it’s clunky, unnecessarily complicated and has lost a lot to its use. It use to be that on the front page you had the stops you favourited and stops a 5 minute walk away from you at that moment. Then they removed that amazing feature and now it’s only the favourited stops you can see. You needlessly have to go through a menu and map to see the time table of the bus stop your already at, and how far away the bus actually is. And there is also the issue of many lines, routes and stops not showing up at all. My local bus route is only showing in one direction now and the bus interchange at a train station I regularly stop at is in the wrong spot, ruining the already sub par journey planner. It’s now easier to go and take a photo of the timetable at the bus stop and trust that more than this impossible app. It wasn’t broken, why did you have to brake it.

Let me break down on how tedious it is to top up your myki from an iPhone. First you have to sign up or log in to the app which isn’t too big of a deal. Although I resent the fact that you can’t stay logged in for however long you want as the app will log you out after 30 days. Then you have to take off your phone case if you have one which most people do. Then take out your myki card and payment card from your wallet. And then the most frustrating part. After selecting “top up” the app will ask you to scan your myki but the scanning is soooooo inconsistent and it typically takes 10+ tries to get a “correct” scan. After that you input your card details and then what’s next? Yup even more inconsistent and frustrating failed scans. I don’t even know which card position is optimal for scanning and the fact that you need to take off your case is just extra tedious. At minimum please make it easier to scan our myki’s on ios or remove the scanning process altogether and find a different more reliable method. I don’t know how this much needed and long waited feature even made it pass testing to be honest. Especially considering that most of us use this feature on the tram when we realise our myki is running low. Please fix soon.