Myki Havoc To Be “Sorted”

in Featured General Trains by AKT — June 23, 2011 at 8:00 am | 6 comments

The newish government in Victoria is sticking with the long troubled smart transport card Myki - even though it continually criticised the card when in Opposition.

The Coalition Government says abandoning the contract would have cost in excess of $1 billion.

It promises to “put Victoria’s transport ticketing system back on track with an effective and reliable ticketing system for passengers and a financially responsible outcome for Victorian taxpayers.”

Premier Ted Baillieu said extensive technical, commercial, and financial analysis of the existing system and options for Victoria’s transport ticketing system has now been completed.

Since March, high-level discussions have been held with NTT Data, the new Japanese parent company of the myki contractor Kamco.

Mr Baillieu said the government’s negotiating team had recently met with NTT Data in Japan to finalise discussions over the future of myki, and secured commitments to deliver the ticketing system within new parameters.

The announcement will enable the final negotiations for the revised contract to proceed with the local subsidiary.

“The revised contract will deliver a reliable ticketing system with strengthened project management and governance arrangements ensuring system improvements and content delivery occur on schedule and on budget,” Mr Baillieu said.

“Improved project management governance and key performance measures will be a key part of the revised ticketing contract.”

A third-party certifier will also be appointed to oversee the remaining build phase to ensure the system fully meets the State’s and the public’s requirements.

A rigorous testing and project oversight regime will also be introduced which will inform the third-party Certifier at critical evaluation points up to the end of the delivery phase.

The complexity of the project will be reduced where possible in order to provide a reliable ticketing system and reduce the risk of further unnecessary cost increases.

Changes to the initial project design will include:

• removing V/Line intercity trains and long distance V/Line coach services from the initial scope until at least steady state operations are achieved in metropolitan Melbourne and major regional centres;
• eliminating to the extent possible the introduction of disposable short-term cards, which are currently only in use on certain regional bus services; and
• operating trams without smartcard ticket vending machines (after Metcard equipment is removed).

The ticketing system will be used in Melbourne and on V/Line’s ‘commuter belt’ to Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Seymour and Traralgon.

The government will negotiate for Metcard operations to continue until the end of 2012 to ensure that the smartcard system is working effectively and reliably for commuters before Metcard is phased out completly. This will include a Metcard removal test period.

Transport Minister Terry Mulder said the revised contract, oversight, monitoring and testing regime will ensure the chronic system and project delivery failures that have plagued Victoria’s ticketing system will end and the risk of further cost blowouts will be minimised.

“Many problems with the myki ticketing system originated with the inadequate contract the Brumby Labor Government entered into which did not include appropriate governance, project management or financial controls for a project of this size and complexity,” Mr Mulder said.

“As a result, the project has blown out by hundreds of millions of dollars, and experienced ongoing delays and systemic failures.

“There are no easy answers to fix the long legacy of Labor’s myki mess,” Mr Mulder said.

Mr Baillieu said negotiating a revised contract for the ticketing system was the most cost effective outcome for Victorian taxpayers and would allow a reliable ticketing system to be delivered in the shortest possible timeframe.

“The costs of paying out the existing contract, removing the existing system infrastructure, and funding a new system would be far higher than the funding required to make myki work,” Mr Baillieu said.

“The Coalition Government will deliver a reliable, effective, and financially responsible ticketing system for Victorians.”

Victoria’s Age newspaper says in an editorial it’s the right decision.
“Myki is less troubled than previously. The overwhelming weight of anecdotal evidence is that commuters who are using myki are happy with it, or at least getting used to it. To abandon myki at this late stage in its introduction would result in still more cost to taxpayers.

Tags: HOP myki