Tried And Tested, That's The Ticket
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday July 4, 2008
THE ideal ticket for public transport is no ticket at all. Imagine it. You would be scanned when you get on the bus, train or ferry and again when you get off. The scanner would read information from a chip you are carrying, perhaps embedded in your credit card. The fare would reflect not only how far you travel, but the time of day and your concession status. All without putting your hand in your pocket. To Sydney commuters queuing in the cold for a weekly ticket, this may sound like science fiction, as remote as travel to the farthest star. Yet in other cities around the world - for example, London with its Oyster card - it is fast becoming an everyday reality. Certainly London, like a host of cities, has electronic ticketing across all modes of public transport. Those systems become daily more sophisticated, while Sydney remains resolutely stuck in the last century. And this, the State Government likes to boast, is Australia's "world city". So Sydney can be forgiven its scepticism about the Government's plans to revive the Tcard.
The Tcard project ended in acrimony this year when the Government terminated the $367 million contract of ERG Ltd, the company contracted to develop a single electronic ticketing system for all forms of public transport in Sydney. The Government is now suing ERG for $90 million, and ERG is suing the Government for $200 million. The pending legal actions mean that neither side is saying much about what went wrong. The received wisdom, however, is that Sydney's staggering range of fares - 500 different types across trains, buses and ferries - was a central problem. Significantly, the Transport Minister, John Watkins, has now asked the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal to help devise a new fare structure for an integrated system. This means that the Government at last accepts the need for something far simpler. It is 10 years since the Government decided to pursue an integrated electronic ticketing system for Sydney's public transport. All it has to show for it is a whopping law suit. The good news is that while the NSW Government has floundered, other cities have developed systems that work. With simplified fares, the Government should be able to take the sensible course and acquire a tried and tested system from overseas. Buying success is so much safer than trying to invent your own.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
