Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

On 6th May 2003, Mr John Armstrong, the Director of the Department of Transport's Integrated Ticketing SmartCard Project, addressed the Institution of Engineers Transport Group at North Sydney. Five members of APT's Management Committee were present in the audience.

The overview covered the project scope, risks and issues. Obviously, in the space of an hour including time for questions, not a lot can be said about a multi-million dollar project with 60 stakeholders, four years of work to date, three years still to go, and 4,000 pages (so far) of Detailed Requirements Analysis. Despite the size of the task, Mr Armstrong did well to paint a broad picture in a short time, and APT thanks him for the presentation.

Some operational details which will be of interest to users are:

1. The existing magnetic strip tickets and the new SmartCard will co-exist for a limited period of time.
2. Each traveller will be required to pay a small deposit (perhaps $5) for the SmartCard.
3. Credit will also have to be loaded onto the card through a bank or a machine before the traveller will be allowed to board a bus or enter a station or wharf. Boarding will be denied unless there is a credit on the card sufficient to pay for a short journey. This value is likely to be about $5.
4. Every traveller will have to "tag" on, when boarding the bus or entering the station, and "tag" off on alighting, or leaving the station. "Tagging" will require the traveller to pass the SmartCard within about 10 cm of the reader. Physical contact between the card and the reader equipment will not be required.
5. A separate policy team is investigating the question of "integrated fares" – that is, cheaper travel by removal of the second and subsequent flag-fall components on multi-vehicle trips.

• after four years' work on the project, only now is input being sought from the travelling public;
• the feeling that, in the absence of any strong demand from the public for a change, the new system is being forced onto the passengers and operators alike by government accountants, computer companies and bankers; (Remember Hans Christian Andersen's story about the conmen who sold the king some non-existent cloth using the line that, to a wise man it is beautiful but to a fool it is invisible.)
• the over-emphasis on "convenience" in the selling pitch, with deliberate down-playing of any likely fare increases. APT believes that the vast majority of commuters are happy with the convenient ticket they already have;
• the constant reference to "losses" in the public transport industry during the presentation, as if the project is a cost-recovery exercise;
• the apparent late recognition by the Department of the difference between integrated tickets and integrated fares;

APT also asked whether the problems that caused Sydney Water's new billing system to be abandoned, taking $61 million with it (see SMH 2nd May 2003), might also occur during the life of this project. Mr Armstrong said that the SmartCard card project was already well past the stage where those problems had occurred elsewhere.

We wish to make it clear that we have no criticism of Mr Armstrong’s role in this project. We respect his skills as a project director, but question rather the policy decisions taken elsewhere which he has the unenviable task of implementing.

We look forward to working with Mr Armstrong and his project team in all the coming phases of the project.