Sydney travel smart card delayed yet again

A report in The Sydney Morning Herald says that Sydney’s public transport smart card has been delayed further after poor-quality software mangled small-scale trials of the technology on the bus and rail network.

Already seven years overdue, the Tcard has been a continuing embarrassment for the State Government, which promised integrated ticketing in time for the Sydney Olympics.

The Perth company contracted to introduce the card, ERG Limited, told the sharemarket this week that the project had to be put back yet again “to ensure high levels of system quality”.

With the Olympics come and gone, full commuter trials of the technology were then meant to begin in November 2004, but were delayed again until the middle of last year.  This week ERG’s chairman, Colin Henson, said the latest problems would postpone the technology yet again.

“This will delay the planned start of a broad-based public trial on the rail system until the beginning of 2008,” he said. “This public trial, including performance evaluation and system tuning, will be conducted over a six-month period.”

“The full-scale deployment of bus and rail equipment will then take a further 12 months to complete.”

The new head of the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation, Elizabeth Zealand, said tests would continue until all problems were ironed out, adding, “Testing has been extended as a consequence of the generally unacceptable quality of software delivered by ERG.”

The introduction of integrated ticketing now faces a further delay.  In last year’s budget the project’s completion date was 2008, but in this year’s papers it was moved to 2009.

Transport experts say the Tcard is crucial to the reform of Sydney’s ailing public transport network, with since 2002 the Government having spent $63.7 million on the project.

ERG has attempted minor trials on State Transit buses leaving the Kingsgrove depot, and on CityRail services leaving Ashfield station.

In June, 420 bus drivers boycotted the trial because they had to repeatedly stop driving to fix the Tcard reader when it crashed.

Despite this, ERG says a bus-only public trial will be ready next month, but technical problems have also plagued the rail tests that have taken place since February.

The complexity of fares across buses, trains and ferries has been a major stumbling block.

Ms Zealand said the full commuter trial, when it eventually takes place, would not attempt to tackle the 70-odd fare products which are currently offered.

“The trial will be on the basis of a simple discounted single fare, similar to Travel Ten fares,” she said.

The delay will also mean further debt servicing for ERG, whose financial performance has been in the spotlight. “With higher than expected financing costs due to delays in receipt of some milestone payments, the company now expects to report a net loss after tax of approximately $15 million [for the financial year],” Mr Henson said.

The Opposition transport spokesperson, Gladys Berejiklian, said the Tcard was an essential piece of Sydney’s transport puzzle.

“The lack of integration is causing huge problems in relation to patronage and efficiency,” she said.

“Ask a rail commuter how long they have to wait to buy a ticket on a Monday morning.”

Report by The Mole