Myki Q+A: Straight answers to your questions

You can buy a myki card from:

• Myki Card Vending Machines located at stations, some tram stops and some bus interchanges.
• Staff at Premium (staffed) stations
• Staff at V/Line stations between Melbourne and Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Traralgon and Seymour
• The PTV Hub at Southern Cross station.
• Retail outlets across Victoria including all 7-Eleven stores.
• The Transport Victoria Website – cards can take up to two weeks to arrive when purchasing online.
• The 1800 800 007 phone number, 6am – midnight daily. Cards can take up to two weeks to arrive when purchasing over the phone.

Those who have NFC-equipped Android Phones can also purchase a Mobile Myki from the Google Wallet App.

Full fare adult passengers can pay fares by tapping a credit card (using a card or mobile phone) on trains and trams – known as Tap And Go. (As of July 2026, covering all trains, trams and buses that accept Myki.)

Those who live in Regional Victoria outside of the Myki boundary can purchase pre-loaded myki cards from some staffed V/Line stations. You can check if your nearest stations offers this and check opening hours on the V/Line website.

The cost of a card is $6 full fare, or $3 concession. The purchase price is not refundable. The card cost alone can not be used for travel, an additional top up is required.

Those who are eligible for a free Seniors Myki should apply for one as part of their application for a Seniors Card.

Myki Card Vending Machines dispense full fare Myki cards, and some types of Concession Myki cards.

You can top up your Myki from:

• The PTV App on a NFC-equipped smartphone.
• Myki Card Vending Machines locatied at stations, some tram stops and some bus interchanges.
• Staff at at Premium (staffed) stations
• Staff at V/Line stations between Melbourne and Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Traralgon and Seymour
• The PTV Hub at Southern Cross station
• Retail outlets across Victoria including all 7-Eleven stores
• The Transport Victoria Website – this can take up to 45 minutes

No, although this was originally planned for people without a Myki it was discontinued during the initial rollout. Now visitors and irregular users can use Tap And Go (contactless) payments using their smartphone or credit/debit card on trains, trams and buses.

You can buy a Myki card and top it up using cash at staffed station counters, Myki retailers and Myki vending machines. Cash payments are not accepted on-board.

You buy a re-usable Myki card and load credit onto it. As you travel you tap on and off, and the system will debit your Myki card as you go.

Fares are on the Transport Victoria website.

Myki Money consists of 2-hour fares and daily caps.

The 2-hour period is exactly that and is timed from the moment you tap on. However, if you tap on after 6 p.m., the 2-hour fare applies until 3 a.m. the next day. There is also an Early Bird free fare for Metro train travel completed before 7:15am on weekdays.

Daily cap: if you make multiple trips in one day, the system charges you a maximum of two 2-hour segments, e.g. the Daily fare.

If your travel is eligible for the Weekend Saver daily fare (Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays), then a discounted daily cap applies.

On weekends, Seniors receive free travel throughout Victoria. Note that even though they are not charged, Seniors are still required to tap on and off.

Myki Pass is what used to be called a periodical ticket.

You buy the normal Myki card and then choose to add credit to turn it into a periodical “pass” for your chosen period — for 7 days, or anything from 28 to 365 days — for the zone or zones you want. Note that these are consecutive days, and are not related to calendar months.

So the price for a “monthly” Pass is based on a particular number of days, not on a calendar month (where the number of days varies).

Current Myki Pass fare prices are listed on the Transport Victoria website.

PTUA Members can buy a discounted 365-day Myki Pass which provides a more than 9% reduction on the retail price. Commuter Club Mykis are specially-coded Myki cards which are provided free with the discounted Yearly fare.

Yes. A single Myki card can have a Myki Pass for travel in your usual zone or zones, and also have Myki Money loaded on it for occasional trips into other zones, including V/Line services.

It does give you the best daily fare, by charging you the cheapest possible fare for each trip, and upgrading it automatically, for instance from a 2-hour fare to a daily fare, whatever is cheapest for your day’s travel.

But if you use it every day, the system does not automatically upgrade you to a cheaper 7-day Pass or a 30-day Pass etc. Myki Pass must be pre-loaded to attract the cheaper periodical fare.

No. The old zone system was retained.

Hong Kong and Singapore and some other cities use fares based on how many kilometres you travel. Myki did not include this change and fares remain almost identical to those under the previous Metcard system, based on the zones (which will now spread across Victoria) and duration (2-hour, daily, etc.) of travel.

The PTUA believes that distance based charging has some disadvantages − it may lead to higher fares, and it is quite confusing, because you might not know how much you’ll be charged before you travel.

No. Your Myki fare is valid as long as you tap on at a station, or board the tram or bus, before the expiry time.

That is not true. They are valid on weekends, but only in the zones you’ve paid for.

Since 2023 when the statewide daily fare cap was introduced, most Myki Passes (including those for Melbourne zone 1, or Melbourne zone 1+2) include all zones.

Only Myki Passes for Melbourne zone 2 and individual regional zones cover smaller areas. In these cases, any travel outside the zone(s) on the Pass is charged via Myki Money, up to the daily cap.

No, not on trains, but you may be affected if you want to make use of the 2-hour fare and you catch trams and buses.

Under Myki, your ticket is valid as long as you start your trip (that is, tap on at the station, or as you board the tram or bus) before the 2-hour travel time expires.

This is only a problem when using trams and buses, because you only tap on as you board. When using trains you can enter the platform and tap on before the expiry time, no matter how late the train you are catching might be.

If you are going to travel for more than 2 hours it makes no difference to you, but if you are trying to make a couple of short trips using a bus or tram in a single 2-hour period, with no other travel that day, you will be charged the daily fare if the bus or tram arrives late, after your 2-hours has expired.

Monetary compensation for poor service delivery can only be claimed if you have travelled for 10 or more days with a Myki Pass that is for 28 days or longer.

When Yarra Trams, Metro Trains or V/Line miss their monthly performance targets, you can claim compensation. Given the electronic nature of the Myki system, it is ridiculous that getting compensation is a manual process, involving filling in a form and posting it. It seems obvious that the system is designed to discourage passengers from getting the compensation they are owed.

Compensation is paid as the Myki Money equivalent of the zones covered by the Pass, rather than extending the duration of the Pass.

There are several ways to make use of the Myki Money compensation:

• Use it after your Pass expires. Note, however, that if you have another Pass loaded on your card, the Myki system will always use that first if it is valid for your trip.
• Request that the compensation amount is added to a different Myki card, such as a family member’s card, or a second card that you use. This option is on the form.
• Pay for your next Myki Pass using Myki Money. This is done by putting enough Myki Money on your card to pay for the Pass, then choosing the option on vending machine to buy a Pass with Myki Money. Unfortunately this option appears to only be available from vending machines.

Tapping on and tapping off allows the system to know what to charge you, although tapping off on trams is optional (see below).

Tap on your Myki at a reader when you enter a station, or when you board a tram or bus. Tap off at a reader when you leave the station, or when you get off the tram or bus.

One of the major problems with the system in its original form was that the response times of the readers were far too slow. This caused long queues at station exits and increased dwell times for buses and trams. After more than 15 years, all the old readers are finally being replaced, with new devices rolling out from 2025. These readers are being introduced in preparation for Tap And Go (contactless) credit card payments and are consistently faster than the readers that came before them.

First Generation Myki Reader

Second Generation (Vix) Myki Reader

Third Generation (Conduent) Myki Reader

You need to tap on every time you enter a station, tram or bus to ensure your ticket is valid for travel, even if you have already tapped on somewhere else for the particular journey you are undertaking.

In reality, you must tap on the first time you use a ticket for a particular journey, to set its expiry date and time. Not doing so is fare evasion.

There is an exception to that, however. You don’t have to tap on or off if you travel on a tram entirely within the Free Tram Zone which covers Melbourne’s CBD and Docklands. There is a map of the Free Tram Zone here.

But if your journey starts or finishes outside the boundaries of the Free Tram Zone, you must tap on your Myki in the normal way to make sure you have a valid ticket.

You must tap on when boarding a bus, even if your ticket is already valid for that journey, so that the bus driver knows you have a valid ticket. You must also tap on when boarding at railway stations if your destination is a gated station, otherwise the gates at your destination may not let you out, and you may have to queue for staff assistance.

You should also tap on and off if you are travelling on a Myki Pass outside the zone(s) you have paid for.

The official view is you should always tap on and off except on trams, for most trips this will ensure you pay the correct fare but there are some circumstances where this is not strictly necessary and some circumstances where you should tap off on trams (see next section)

If you do not tap off the system will charge a default fare, which can be higher than the correct fare. The default fare is applied when the system does not know where you finished your trip so it assumes you travelled to the end of the line on a tram or bus, or to the last station on the longest train line. You should always tap off when using Myki Money to avoid being overcharged.

However Myki Pass users, don’t necessary need to tap off when travelling wholly within their nominated zone, as the fare is already covered. As you have pre-paid for what you want you can’t be overcharged by not tapping off.

The government encourages tapping on and off for data collection, but similar information was gathered under the old Metcard system and through surveys. This has not stopped crowding caused by poor planning in recent years.

To avoid congestion from large numbers of people tapping off at busy stops, all tram routes were set to fall within Zone 1. This means the default fare on trams is always a Zone 1 fare, and both the operator and the government encourage passengers not to tap off to help reduce dwell times.

However, if you travel entirely within the Zone 1/2 overlap at the outer ends of routes 75, 86 and 109, you should tap off if you want the cheaper Zone 2-only fare.

The information showing your card balance, and the amount deducted for your journey, will be displayed for as long as you hold your card to the reader, so hold it up for longer if you want to check that information. However, some of the new card readers on railway station barriers do not display any information about the status of the card.

You can also use a Myki Card Vending Machine or the PTV app to find out the status of your card.

There is little information printed on the Myki card itself, and no obvious way of telling whether you have validated correctly or not. Authorised Officers (ticket inspectors) and V/Line conductors use hand-held devices that can read the cards.

With Tap And Go (Contactless) being introduced in 2026, staff are getting upgrades to their devices. These can verify that the credit card or phone has been used to tap on, but cannot view your banking details.

Yes, in some situations.

Station exits have often become congested as train loads of people queue to tap off. The unacceptably slow and inconsistent response times of the original card readers made this worse. After more than 15 years, all the old readers are finally being replaced, with new devices rolling out from 2025. These readers are being introduced in preparation for Tap And Go (Contactless) credit card payments and are consistently faster than both types of readers that came before them. Hopefully this will reduce congestion.

Buses have benefited from faster boarding times, especially after cash top-ups were stopped during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this also means bus passengers now face the same issue as tram passengers, as they can no longer buy a valid ticket on board.

Mobile Myki is a way of paying Myki fares using a mobile phone.

It is available on phones with recent versions of Android (5.0 and higher) that have NFC (Near-Field Communication). NFC is used by the phone to communicate with Myki readers so you can tap on and off as you travel.

Mobile Myki works within the Google Wallet App. You can use it to create an adult or concession virtual Myki card on your phone. Unlike a physical card, it is free, but it does need to be linked to a Google account. Once set up, it can be loaded with Myki Money or some types of Myki Pass.

You can then use your phone to tap on and off. Depending on your phone it may or may not need to be unlocked.

There are more details on how to set it up on the Transport Victoria website.

No, Mobile Myki is only available on Android. It isn’t expected to be implemented on iPhone, since Tap And Go (contactless) payments will let iPhone users pay directly using a credit or debit card already stored in Apple Wallet.

For more information on the Myki Tap And Go (contactless) upgrade, visit the Transport Victoria website.

As of July 2026, Tap And Go (contactless) is available for full fare passengers only, on all train, tram and buses that use Myki.

For more information on the Tap And Go rollout, visit this page on the Transport Victoria website.

When you have both a credit/debit card and a Mobile Myki stored in your Google Wallet your phone will default to using the Mobile Myki when you tap a Myki reader.

If you want to use a credit or debit card to make a Tap And Go (contactless) trip you will need to unlock your phone, open the Google Wallet app and select your credit/debit card before tapping. Make sure you do this for each tap you make through the day to avoid paying extra.

It depends on your phone settings.

Victoria’s Tap And Go (contactless) rollout includes support for Transit Mode, which means you can tap on and off without typing your phone password or completing a fingerprint or face scan. However, this setting may not be on by default.

For instructions on how to check and change the Transit mode settings on your phone, see these guides:

• Apple Wallet (iPhone)
• Google Wallet
• Samsung Pay

For more information on Transit mode technology see this website.

Myki (and Tap And Go/contactless) operates on V/Line’s commuter services between Melbourne and:

• Waurn Ponds on the Geelong Line
• Wendouree on Ballarat Line
• Raywood or Goornong the Bendigo Line
• Seymour on the Seymour Line
• Traralgon on the Gippsland Line

Every V/Line commuter station is located in a fare zone from 3 to 16.
You can view the fares for Regional train Myki travel on the Transport Victoria website.

Passengers taking long journeys on V/Line commuter services are given additional time (rather than the standard 2 hours) to complete their journey without incurring any extra fare.

• Travel across 3-5 zones : 2½ hours
• Travel across 6-8 zones: 3 hours
• Travel across 9-11 zones: 3½ hours
• Travel across 12-13 zones: 4 hours
• Travel across 15 zones: 4.5 hours

Myki cannot be used for travel on long distance services travelling to/from any station between:

• Waurn Ponds and Warrnambool
• Wendouree and Ararat
• Ballarat and Maryborough
• Raywood and Swan Hill
• Goornong and Echuca
• Seymour and Shepparton
• Seymour and Albury
• Traralgon and Bairnsdale

If you are using any other form of public transport on the same day you travel to/from any V/Line long distance station ensure you pre-purchase your V/Line ticket to avoid paying more than the daily cap. Per section 5.15 of the Victorian Fares and Ticketing Conditions your V/Line ticket entitles you to 2 hours of free travel on either side of a V/Line journey as indicated by the printed codes beside destinations on your ticket.

• Z1+2 entitles you to travel in Zones 1 and 2,
• Z2 entitles you to travel in Zone 2,
• BTS entitles you to travel on Ballarat or Bendigo bus services depending on your printed destination,
• GTS entitles you to travel on Geelong bus services,
• T/Bus entitles you to travel on local bus services within your printed destination.

If you are travelling on a Melbourne train tram or bus service to connect with a long distance V/Line service it is highly likely you will not need a Myki. You will just need to check the Z1+2 code is printed on your ticket and then display this to fare gate staff, bus drivers or Authorised Officers.

The State Government has announced that Myki and Tap And Go will be extended to these V/Line stations soon.

It doesn’t! You are required to use another type of ticket. The government has promised an expansion of the Myki system multiple times. The latest commitment is that it will be delivered with the upgrade to Tap And Go (contactless) credit card options, but no rollout timeline has been announced.

To travel on V/Line coaches you will need a V/Line ticket
For more information on V/Line tickets see the V/Line website.

To travel on local bus services in

you will need a Category A regional bus ticket, these can be purchased from the driver.
For more information on regional bus tickets see the Regional Bus fares supplement.

To travel on local bus services in

• Ararat
• Beaufort
• Stawell

you will need a Category B regional bus ticket, these can be purchased from the driver.
For more information on regional bus tickets see the Regional Bus fares supplement.

You can apply for a refund of a partly-used Myki Pass or an unused Myki Pass, as well as unused Myki Money. You can do that by filling out an online application. However refunds are not available on expired Passes, and you cannot get a refund of the purchase price of a Myki card ($6 or $3 concession) .

Not unless you choose to register your Myki.

If you register your card you are protected against theft or the loss of the card, because you can report the loss, have your Myki deactivated, and have the remaining credit balance transferred to a new card. You can also set a registered card to be topped up automatically with money from your bank account.

The government has published a privacy policy which goes into some detail about when they might provide someone’s travel data to authorities. You can read it here.

It is perfectly legal for other people to use your Myki, provided that it only has Myki Money loaded on it. However the rules say you are not allowed to share your card if a Myki Pass is loaded on it.

No it does not. This idea was once widespread but completely false.

Myki cards expire four years after the card was first topped up. Frustratingly the expiry date is not printed on the card itself.

You can find out when your card expires by checking it on a Myki Card Vending Machine, by ringing 1800 800 007 and quoting the card number. or by registering your Myki online.

Options when your card expires:

• Tap your card at a vending machine or on the PTV app within 90 days of expiry. If eligible, the card expiry will be extended by 2 years. See details here.
• Get a free replacement card at a staffed (Premium) railway station or the PTV Hub. The balance on your old card will be transferred to the new one
• Contact Transport Victoria for a replacement card by mail

If your expired Myki is registered, the replacement card will also be automatically registered. However, if you have auto top up linked to your expired Myki, you will have arrange auto top up again for your new card.

Only in certain circumstances. Your Myki must have a balance of at least $0.00 (i.e. not negative) for you to be able to tap on, but you can go into negative balance during the journey. If you break the journey, your Myki goes into negative balance, and any other tap on will be refused, even if the two-hour or daily travel period has not expired.

It is also important to note that even though the Myki Pass on your card may be valid for travel, you cannot commence a journey using Myki Pass if the Myki Money balance on that card is negative. For your Myki Pass to be valid, your Myki Money balance must be at least $0.00.

Yes. PTUA members who are regular public transport users can buy discounted Yearly tickets, at about 9% off the retail price, and that includes a free Myki card. You can see full details of the offer here. Commuter Club is also available via some employers.

If you want to read all the fine print yourself, it’s contained in the Victorian Fares and Ticketing Manual. Be warned, the Manual is over 100 pages long.

For assistance using Myki or any other ticketing enquiries you can

• Speak with staff at Premium (staffed) stations
• Speak with staff at V/Line stations between Melbourne and Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Traralgon and Seymour
• Visit the PTV Hub at Southern Cross station.
• Visit the Transport Victoria Website.
• Call 1800 800 007, Open 6am – midnight daily.

If you encounter any issues with the Myki system, please email office@ptua.org.au and we will endeavour to assist where we can.

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