ACTION buses will not know for several days how much money it will have to refund to thousands of Canberra children it overcharged for bus fares.
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The operator says a glitch in the MyWay ticketing system blamed for charging 8600 children adult bus fares between March 1 and March 5 has been fixed.
An ACTION spokesman said on Monday that the system supplier of the MyWay cards reverted the cards back to their correct student status on Saturday 6 April.
The network's bus drivers were informed of the issue on Friday so they were aware students may have a problem using their tickets to get home.
A spokesman for the Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS) department said the children's MyWay cards had been incorrectly switched over to adult status, and charged the higher, standard adult fare.
The $8 million MyWay system went live in April 2011 and has proved relatively trouble-free and popular with the city's bus commuters.
It is still unclear the exact amount that was overcharged but the spokesman said all the MyWay cards affected by the glitch would be refunded.
“Discussions have taken place with the supplier today in regards to refunding the overcharged amounts,” he said.
“The difference between the fare paid and what should have been paid will be credited automatically.
“The supplier is working to establish travel details of impacted cards.”
The process will have to identify bus trips on school or non school days and peak or off-peak runs, which are charged at different rates, as well as discounts offered to parents who Bpay for their children's cards.
“Due to the complex nature of this process, the exact details of impacted cards and refund amounts will not be known for a few days,” the spokesman said.
“The supplier is working to a deadline of this Sunday, April 14, to have the work completed and the refunds processed.”
The spokesman said that the problem had not occurred before and that ACTION and its supplier were working on ways to prevent any repeat.
“This is the first time we have encountered this issue and processes will be put in place to help ensure it does not happen again,” he said.
ACTION have asked any customers to contact the MyWay administration office on with any questions or concerns.
