Except on trams (see below), the official line is yes. If you don’t touch-off, you may get charged a default fare, which may be more than you’d otherwise pay.
The default fare is charged when the system doesn’t know where you got off the train/tram/bus, and it assumes you might have gone to the end of the line (on a tram/bus) or to the last stop of the longest line on the system (metropolitan trains).
In other words if you don’t touch-off on buses and trains the Myki system may assume you took a two-zone trip, and charge you for it. If this is the correct fare anyway (for instance you’ve travelled on a train from the CBD to a Zone 2 station) then you will not be charged anything extra if you do not touch-off, and so you can choose not to do so.
As noted above, you still need to touch on and off if you are travelling on a tram entirely within the Zone 1/2 overlap, if you want to ensure that you pay the cheaper Zone 2 fare.
The default fare does not apply to Myki Pass if you touched on (started your journey) in your nominated zone. In other words, if you have a weekly/monthly/yearly Pass on your Myki card, there is no need to touch off when travelling in the zone(s) covered by the Pass.
The government says it gets useful statistics about travel patterns if people touch on and touch off every time. However, they supposedly got useful statistics with the old Metcard system, as well as through manual surveys, but that hasn’t stopped services getting very crowded due to a lack of forward planning and investment over the past few years.
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The default fare is charged when the system doesn’t know where you got off the train/tram/bus, and it assumes you might have gone to the end of the line (on a tram/bus) or to the last stop of the longest line on the system (metropolitan trains).
In other words if you don’t touch-off on buses and trains the Myki system may assume you took a two-zone trip, and charge you for it. If this is the correct fare anyway (for instance you’ve travelled on a train from the CBD to a Zone 2 station) then you will not be charged anything extra if you do not touch-off, and so you can choose not to do so.
As noted above, you still need to touch on and off if you are travelling on a tram entirely within the Zone 1/2 overlap, if you want to ensure that you pay the cheaper Zone 2 fare.
The default fare does not apply to Myki Pass if you touched on (started your journey) in your nominated zone. In other words, if you have a weekly/monthly/yearly Pass on your Myki card, there is no need to touch off when travelling in the zone(s) covered by the Pass.
The government says it gets useful statistics about travel patterns if people touch on and touch off every time. However, they supposedly got useful statistics with the old Metcard system, as well as through manual surveys, but that hasn’t stopped services getting very crowded due to a lack of forward planning and investment over the past few years.