Do I really need to touch on every time?

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

In reality, you must touch 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 touch 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 touch on your Myki in the normal way to make sure you have a valid ticket.

You must touch 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 touch 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 touch on and touch off if you are travelling on a Myki Pass outside the zone(s) you have paid for