Review Insights · App Store
Public Transport Victoria app
Public Transport Victoria · 307 ratings · ★ 4.5
4.5
★★★★★
307 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 61 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"doesn"
13 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not work on iphone. What’s the point of an app on iphone that doesn’t work on it? Apparently the ptv app only works on android." - VarGoose18
2
"useless"
13 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Useless for visitors. I can’t sign up because I don’t have a local cellphone. So now I have to buy this piece of plastic for $6 and hope I don’t lose it. I’m loving Australia so far but who designed this system?" - AppRater52
3
"public"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad. Bad design. Bad system. Bad people. Considering how wealthy this country is with all of the mining, public transportation should be free. They seem to exclusively hire racist/hateful inspectors. What a stupid job that shouldn’t exist. …" - lickmyownarmpits
4
"work"
11 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Tourist Use of App Possible?. Bottom Line. Suggest you make it clear and prominent this app will not work without an Australian telephone number and address. It does not appear to be possible for a foreigner (tourist) to use this app. Can’t get past the login registra…" - This nickname is taken. :/
5
"transport"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad. Bad design. Bad system. Bad people. Considering how wealthy this country is with all of the mining, public transportation should be free. They seem to exclusively hire racist/hateful inspectors. What a stupid job that shouldn’t exist. …" - lickmyownarmpits
6
"update"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Abysmal. After a good handful of updates, you’d think the devs would’ve got the app close to functional. But nope, it still doesn’t serve its purpose. Try again." - Ivan Hutchinson
7
"metlink"
9 negative reviews mention this · 15% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So useless!. The old metlink app was so much better. Well...it was actually useful unlike this app!" - JustKimmiann
8
"public transport"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad. Bad design. Bad system. Bad people. Considering how wealthy this country is with all of the mining, public transportation should be free. They seem to exclusively hire racist/hateful inspectors. What a stupid job that shouldn’t exist. …" - lickmyownarmpits
9
"other"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Klutzy system. I was shocked to find this klutzy app and transport ticket system in Australia which has so many smoothly operating systems and well-thought through processes. As a tourist, passing through for two days, I downloaded the app, thinking I co…" - Jacqui_in_SF
10
"plan"
8 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not as helpful as it could be.... I recently moved to Melbourne and have found the "old" app much more helpful with planning trips. My main complaint is that this "new" app should have a journey planner so we know what to do when we get to those unfamiliar areas. We love Me…" - Roonski78
11
"card"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "no apple pay. apple pay has been broken on this app for years. insane that i have to manually enter card details every time i need to top up" - testgoat
12
"does"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "does not accept foreign phone numbes. Wasted time as a tourist with this app." - ios 5 was the best
📋 All 61 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
no apple pay
apple pay has been broken on this app for years. insane that i have to manually enter card details every time i need to top up
Bad bad bad bad bad bad bad
Bad design.
Bad system.
Bad people.
Considering how wealthy this country is with all of the mining, public transportation should be free.
They seem to exclusively hire racist/hateful inspectors.
What a stupid job that shouldn’t exist.
Crazy how they kill people and get away with it, just for not touching on.
Bad system.
Bad people.
Considering how wealthy this country is with all of the mining, public transportation should be free.
They seem to exclusively hire racist/hateful inspectors.
What a stupid job that shouldn’t exist.
Crazy how they kill people and get away with it, just for not touching on.
does not accept foreign phone numbes
Wasted time as a tourist with this app.
Worst public transport system
Compared to public transport systems in NSW and QLD, the VIC public transportation system is ridiculous and much too complicated than it should be. Rides are so expensive! The most expensive in the country! The Myki cards are a waste of plastic. If I can scan the Myki card with my phone, why can’t I scan my phone to pay on the bus/tram. The app is terrible, always glitching out, won’t let me create an account. Won’t scan the Myki card anymore. Overall so terrible and frustrating!!
Tourist Use of App Possible?
Bottom Line. Suggest you make it clear and prominent this app will not work without an Australian telephone number and address.
It does not appear to be possible for a foreigner (tourist) to use this app. Can’t get past the login registration screen as it errors without an Australian telephone number and address.
Attempted to make a suggestion that this be made clear and prominent in the app information section. Alas, using your contact page encountered the same issue with your web form.
Regardless, the PT card itself works great and Google Maps and Apple Maps work satisfactorily for transit navigation.
It does not appear to be possible for a foreigner (tourist) to use this app. Can’t get past the login registration screen as it errors without an Australian telephone number and address.
Attempted to make a suggestion that this be made clear and prominent in the app information section. Alas, using your contact page encountered the same issue with your web form.
Regardless, the PT card itself works great and Google Maps and Apple Maps work satisfactorily for transit navigation.
Can’t use with international phone
Unfortunately you can only top up and use the app if you have an Australian number. I hope they change this app to include WhatsApp or int. Numbers.
Does not work on iphone
What’s the point of an app on iphone that doesn’t work on it? Apparently the ptv app only works on android.
Never works
I can’t even properly use the app as it keeps getting me to fill in information and then says unable to creat account. I’ve installed and uninstalled the app a couple times. And still broken! And NO access to reach out to someone to help.
Typical public transport issues in Melbourne.
Typical public transport issues in Melbourne.
Complains phone is jailbroken
Can’t use this app as it complains my phone is jailbroken, it isn’t.
International Traveler DONT INSTALL
Don’t waste your time if you’re an international traveler and don’t have an Australian number/address because you can’t even sign up. I can’t believe developers haven’t thought about localization. Really disappointing.
Awful
As an international traveler that just rode the Metro all around Sydney, I’m shocked and stunned how far Vic is behind in technology.
To sign up, you need a physical card that cost… Really unbelievable. Just can’t believe how much business they lose over ridiculous enrollment process
To sign up, you need a physical card that cost… Really unbelievable. Just can’t believe how much business they lose over ridiculous enrollment process
Klutzy system
I was shocked to find this klutzy app and transport ticket system in Australia which has so many smoothly operating systems and well-thought through processes. As a tourist, passing through for two days, I downloaded the app, thinking I could finally use Victorian public transport easily. But no such thing. The app requires you to have a physical myki card to sign up. (Huh!?) but no problem, I had a myki card from my last trip to Victoria. But no, it had expired! (Huh!?) no problem, I was outside a newsagent so i figured I could delay my trip by ten minutes to go get a new card, but there was a big “no myki here” sign inside. Finally I found a seven eleven that sold physical cards but the lady told me to stand aside so she could serve other customers first (I guess myki is also klutzy and slow to sell…) but then she tells me it is six dollars for my card and three dollars each for my kids and mother… $18 before we could even fill the cards with fares. Then she tells me it’s free to ride in the city anyway so we jumó on a tram without getting a ticket, but apparently the free zone only goes a little way and drops you in a newsagency-free zone! So then we were stuck on the middle of nowhere with no way to get a ticket for our transport. Which Einstein designed this system?
Useless for visitors
I can’t sign up because I don’t have a local cellphone. So now I have to buy this piece of plastic for $6 and hope I don’t lose it. I’m loving Australia so far but who designed this system?
Absurd sign up process for a transit app
Echoing comments from many other reviewers who are trying to use this app to check a balance or refill a card quickly. The process is however more cumbersome then signing into a banking app and requires so many local details that of course are not relevant to visitors whether from far off or other parts of Australia. As a result, what seems like a great app is all but unusable, particularly when it’s most needed (like waiting for a bus and wanting to add funds).
Awful.
Doesn’t scan the NFC chip properly and also doesn’t let you enter a phone number properly. It’s is unusable
Unusable for tourists
Public transit is so convenient when you're a tourist so that you don't have to get a rental car or take taxis all the time. Clearly nobody at the Victoria transit authority has ever considered this use-case. Getting a myki card is inconvenient in the first place compared to many other locales where you can either tap your credit/debit card directly or use your phone to pay - public transit is atrocious in the US, but this they often get right, so I was expecting more from Aus. Then you have to top it up, which they've made very inconvenient again. Online it says to use this app to top up instantly, but this app requires you to have an Aussie phone number to sign up or sign in. Online top up requires you to have an Aussie credit card. So then the only option left is to physically top it up at a shop, and better hope there is one near wherever you need it when you run out, because they aren't just at every tram station. Just get rid of all the restrictions and integrate with Wallet instead of having your own app, please.
top up never works
what’s the point of having a function where you can automatically top up using the app if the app is NEVER able to scan my myki? i consistently get error messages when scanning my myki to top up. the top up function has only ever worked once for me. absolutely useless app.
Abysmal
After a good handful of updates, you’d think the devs would’ve got the app close to functional. But nope, it still doesn’t serve its purpose. Try again.
Latest update made this app useless now
The latest update is just an absolutely disaster as the whole app is completely useless now, bus route information would either wrong or not showing at all. Totally agree with others reviews that whoever responsible for this update should be fired.
Useless
Useless app for an unnecessarily convoluted public transportation system. You cant even see the zone 1 and zone 2
Crashes instantly
I run this app on an iPhone 5 and it crashes instantly. Please fix this fault!
17/2/16 - upgraded today to latest version. Still crashes.
17/2/16 - upgraded today to latest version. Still crashes.
Great for outdated information or tracking what should have happen
This is a static timetable and does not actually show delays cancellations or real time information.
Very useful if you are having issues accessing the actual up to date information. This app will not work unless you have access to data and if you have access to data then you can look up relevant information, which defeats the purpose of having this app.
Very useful if you are having issues accessing the actual up to date information. This app will not work unless you have access to data and if you have access to data then you can look up relevant information, which defeats the purpose of having this app.
Not as helpful as it could be...
I recently moved to Melbourne and have found the "old" app much more helpful with planning trips. My main complaint is that this "new" app should have a journey planner so we know what to do when we get to those unfamiliar areas. We love Melbourne, help us use the fabulous public transport!
Problem
Its doesnt appear the pin in the map
Terrible April 13 Update
The April 2013 update has made the app pretty useless. Now you have to search stops from the map instead of being able to choose favorites. Next service departure times are now shown in minutes until the service instead of departure times, and are very unreliable - have yet to fin the service I'm actually riding on. And you can choose subsequent stops to see additional departure times - you have to go back to the map.
This version may be useful for people who seldom use public transport or tourists, but no good for 99.99% of people who commute frequently. Unfortunately for tourists, you'll have to fork over cash just for the privilege to pay and ride in the first place.
Bring back the older version.
This version may be useful for people who seldom use public transport or tourists, but no good for 99.99% of people who commute frequently. Unfortunately for tourists, you'll have to fork over cash just for the privilege to pay and ride in the first place.
Bring back the older version.
So useless!
The old metlink app was so much better. Well...it was actually useful unlike this app!
I hate this app!
Seriously, what a waste of money. This app is a shocker. Not in the least user friendly and using apple maps is even more of a disaster! Bring back the Metlink app. Soooo much easier to use.
This is a terrible app that must be withdrawn
I take the train between Marshall and Southern Cross Station, a terminus station with 14 or 15 platforms and hundreds of V/Line country trains, suburban trains and bus services daily. I had an app that worked (the old MetLink app). That wasn’t stellar, but it worked well enough that I didn’t need to get a paper timetable.
So imagine my continuing frustration that the most basic of use cases just doesn’t work in the complete re-write of the new app:
* I cannot find my V/Line station when standing on the station platform (!) using location search or by searching for the station in the default “Trains” mode the app comes in from the AppStore.
* It cannot find the terminus of all V/Line services - Southern Cross Station. I’m serious. In “Train” mode, you cannot search for V/Line services or stations. In “V/Line” mode, Southern Cross is not even a station (!!). You cannot find it by clicking on “Find my location” icon whilst in the station (!), and you cannot choose it from the map, and you cannot search for it. Epic fail of all epic fails. It’s like the PTV app designers chose not to walk the 40 m from their office block to the biggest and busiest station in all of Victoria and test it out.
* Modality. It’s nearly impossible to work out you can change the mode of transport you’re looking up by clicking the word “Trains” at the bottom of the screen. I am catching a “train”, but not the default type of “train”. Who knew? The thought that there are multiple types of trains obviously never entered to PTV’s UX designers. There’s no button shape or indicator, it’s just in a button bar by itself, which usually means that there are no other choices.
Honestly, PTV need to test their apps:
You should be able to find all the services within 500 m of where you are standing. Just list them all and let the filter function narrow things down in one or two keytaps.
You should be able to find ANY station or service or transport mode via text search. It’s just not that hard. There should be no difference between a regional bus, a metropolitan tram, an intercity V/Line service, or a station or bus stop. List ‘em all, and let the filter work its magic in a few keystrokes.
Get rid of modes. I don’t think of modes and I use at least two every day. Free up that wasted screen real estate and replace it with a search function that works across all modes, and services.
* You should be able to view a line’s entire timetable with no more than two or three clicks. Timetables -> scroll to the timetable or tap in enough to narrow things down -> voila. It’s not rocket science. Allow it to be a favorite.
* Planning a multi-mode trip is not rocket science. This is just not possible with the current PTV app. This might be possible if you could select stations or destinations, but I've yet to do this because YOU CANNOT SELECT ANY STATIONS.
* The old app had notifications for the services / lines you were interested in. Please bring it back. This feature may actually be in the PTV app - I simply don’t know because I have not been able to find my station or the station at which I get off.
This app is terrible. It must be withdrawn.
So imagine my continuing frustration that the most basic of use cases just doesn’t work in the complete re-write of the new app:
* I cannot find my V/Line station when standing on the station platform (!) using location search or by searching for the station in the default “Trains” mode the app comes in from the AppStore.
* It cannot find the terminus of all V/Line services - Southern Cross Station. I’m serious. In “Train” mode, you cannot search for V/Line services or stations. In “V/Line” mode, Southern Cross is not even a station (!!). You cannot find it by clicking on “Find my location” icon whilst in the station (!), and you cannot choose it from the map, and you cannot search for it. Epic fail of all epic fails. It’s like the PTV app designers chose not to walk the 40 m from their office block to the biggest and busiest station in all of Victoria and test it out.
* Modality. It’s nearly impossible to work out you can change the mode of transport you’re looking up by clicking the word “Trains” at the bottom of the screen. I am catching a “train”, but not the default type of “train”. Who knew? The thought that there are multiple types of trains obviously never entered to PTV’s UX designers. There’s no button shape or indicator, it’s just in a button bar by itself, which usually means that there are no other choices.
Honestly, PTV need to test their apps:
You should be able to find all the services within 500 m of where you are standing. Just list them all and let the filter function narrow things down in one or two keytaps.
You should be able to find ANY station or service or transport mode via text search. It’s just not that hard. There should be no difference between a regional bus, a metropolitan tram, an intercity V/Line service, or a station or bus stop. List ‘em all, and let the filter work its magic in a few keystrokes.
Get rid of modes. I don’t think of modes and I use at least two every day. Free up that wasted screen real estate and replace it with a search function that works across all modes, and services.
* You should be able to view a line’s entire timetable with no more than two or three clicks. Timetables -> scroll to the timetable or tap in enough to narrow things down -> voila. It’s not rocket science. Allow it to be a favorite.
* Planning a multi-mode trip is not rocket science. This is just not possible with the current PTV app. This might be possible if you could select stations or destinations, but I've yet to do this because YOU CANNOT SELECT ANY STATIONS.
* The old app had notifications for the services / lines you were interested in. Please bring it back. This feature may actually be in the PTV app - I simply don’t know because I have not been able to find my station or the station at which I get off.
This app is terrible. It must be withdrawn.
Absolute garbage
They took a perfectly functional app and ruined it with an interface so minimalist and baffling as to be unusable. Avoid this app, stick with Metlink Classic.
Dissappointed
Thurs app may look better, but does not work. It is really frustrating as a metro customer not being able to use it. Almost need to resort to printed timetables or desktops.
Just a note: how weird is that it has both 5 and 1 star ratings? Look at all the ratings below: all of them are 1. They had to release the previous app, which worked fine. It's called Ptv original. Should have done that in the first place and not waist thousands developing this horrible number.
Just a note: how weird is that it has both 5 and 1 star ratings? Look at all the ratings below: all of them are 1. They had to release the previous app, which worked fine. It's called Ptv original. Should have done that in the first place and not waist thousands developing this horrible number.
What a waste
The old metlink app worked flawlessly. Why they switched over to this app is beyond me. It crashes all the time, doesn't display info when planning a journey, and various other bugs. The only think this works for is looking at a train station nearby and checking the running times. This app needs some serious updates/renovations/bug fixes/a miracle.
Worst public transport app
Too bad they took away all the useful features of the original app. Can't even plan a journey with this.
Awful
Worst app ever!!
Awful
This app WAS great and is now useless. Has lost all of the features and is now really difficult to use. Cannot plan a trip at all. Better off going to the web page. Please go back to the older version.
Not very good. User unfriendly. Wrong information.
If NSW can do a better app, you know you are in trouble. PTV, do yourself a favor and just license the one that NSW got from some German company. This an update: not only is it hard to use, the information is wrong. Said my train went to Southern Cross but it doesn't, it terminates at Flinders St. Due to Metros lack of use of announcements I only know about it when the train reverses direction. BAD APP.
Don't fix what ain't broken
Probably the most useless app ever, have to jump through hoops to get it to work. It's actually impossible to plan a journey, just getting train timetables is an exercise in futility. Worst app ever. Ever.
Worst App on the Market
Absolutely useless in that if you want to go from one train station to the next it is a 20 exercise to get the app to work. It regularly does not recognize common words, claims you can not travel from one train station to another and has you looking at a map instead of names of the places you want to go. The customer support is appalling: they try to tell you why the app is great and cutting edge. The app is rubbish and should be recalled. Shocking how much time is wasted on that app with no result. Sorry developers but time to admit an embarrassing defeat.
What a joke...
This use to be a great all the Metlink App worked great, I even recommended it to all my friends who use public transport, but this is a joke - seriously, I can't plan any travel - I try to plan trips and I get a "not found" error all the time… How many people actually QA'ed this product?
Horrible.
Clunky design, horrible connection and not user friendly. Just a polished piece of 💩 that's useless. Whoever approved this app needs to loose their jobs or a lot of other people would being late to work using this crap.
Awful awful upgrade
This "update" has an order of magnitude less functionality and customizability than the previous version (v1.5).
It was in fact SO BAD that I had to resort for the first time to fishing in my Time Machine backup for the previous version, and turning off automatic updates.
The GUI seems to flout all IOS conventions (e.g. the favourites list doesn't have the usual tools for changing the orders of items). The Journey planner seems broken and just everything about it seems more simple minded than the previous version.
A triumph of visual design over functionality.
Please withdraw this upgrade and make v1.5 available again to people. There seems to be a consensus here!
It was in fact SO BAD that I had to resort for the first time to fishing in my Time Machine backup for the previous version, and turning off automatic updates.
The GUI seems to flout all IOS conventions (e.g. the favourites list doesn't have the usual tools for changing the orders of items). The Journey planner seems broken and just everything about it seems more simple minded than the previous version.
A triumph of visual design over functionality.
Please withdraw this upgrade and make v1.5 available again to people. There seems to be a consensus here!
Dreadful
Can only reiterate comments from others - the old app worked. This one just doesn't - apparently there are no trains to flinders st in the evenings...
They ruined the app
This app worked great before they updated it! Sure it wasn't pretty, but at least it was functional. It is absolutely ridiculous now. It doesn't even have the maps or anything anymore.
Horrible
Agreein with the previous commemts its just awful.
Unusable
A pretty interface, a usability nightmare, if it even functions at all. It was also entirely inappropriate that this "update" should replace my installation of the previous app and thereby wipe out my favourites. Very unprofessional and rather clumsily done, and a wasted investment paying the developers who produced this. Usability testing would be helpful.
Bad
Bad
Worst
This app is horrible. I wish the makers of it would read these reviews, see how bad EVERYONE thinks their product is, and update it.
Route Map & Platforms
HATE that I was forced to "upgrade" to this untested and BROKEN app.
Have finally figured out how to get some information out of it
Like setting up your favorites at 0200 when there is nobody using the app.
Then when you ned to use these favorites in the mornign just go back and forth three times to get rid of the "no results" error.
But even if this bug gets fixed there are HUGE problems.
1. Best features of the Metlink app was the route maps - the google map type map is NOT a route map !
2. Second best feature was the journey planner provided the PLATFORM connection data.
This is a MUST when wandering through Flinders where the platforms change constantly
But still helpful even when going to small stations you have never been to.
The canned feedback response is also a JOKE.
First they come out and tell us to go back to using the Metlink classic - though because it hadn't been updated has its own problems.
Today they posted that they have put the old WORKING Metlink app back on the store - BUT IT IS NOT HERE !!!
PT Victoria MUST demand their money back from the developers of this crAPP
Have finally figured out how to get some information out of it
Like setting up your favorites at 0200 when there is nobody using the app.
Then when you ned to use these favorites in the mornign just go back and forth three times to get rid of the "no results" error.
But even if this bug gets fixed there are HUGE problems.
1. Best features of the Metlink app was the route maps - the google map type map is NOT a route map !
2. Second best feature was the journey planner provided the PLATFORM connection data.
This is a MUST when wandering through Flinders where the platforms change constantly
But still helpful even when going to small stations you have never been to.
The canned feedback response is also a JOKE.
First they come out and tell us to go back to using the Metlink classic - though because it hadn't been updated has its own problems.
Today they posted that they have put the old WORKING Metlink app back on the store - BUT IT IS NOT HERE !!!
PT Victoria MUST demand their money back from the developers of this crAPP
M
Horrible. Please fix!! I agree with all other reviews. This is unusable!!!!! Deserves negative stars
Absolute Crap
Taken a great app and made it totally useless. Takes forever to update. Uninstall and use Metlink Classic.
Not worth one star.
Not worth one star.
upgrade? more like downgrade
version 2.0? more like 2.NO🙅
+ 11 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
89%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
9%
Negative (1-2★)