PUBLIC transport could become more expensive for many under new rules for the long-awaited transport smart card being considered by cabinet.
To complement the Tcard ticket prices would be based on distance, spelling the end to multi-use tickets such as TravelPasses and weekly RailPasses.
But Government indecision is threatening the Tcard's future.
Relations with ERG, the firm contracted to produce the card, reached new lows this year after the Minister for Transport, John Watkins, sought legal advice on whether he could safely terminate the contract.
ERG signed the $367 million Tcard contract more than four years ago. The Tcard was meant to usher in an era of convenient, fast travel between rail, bus and ferry.
But in April the Government's Public Transport Ticketing Corporation wrote a formal letter to ERG complaining that the software was of inferior quality and was seriously delayed.
It was the first such letter issued to ERG since the corporation was created in July last year, and came when there was a cloud over the project's future.
However, the company's response - a plan to get the card delivered by its current deadline of 2009, or earlier - was so thorough that Mr Watkins tried to retract the letter.
Dithering about fare reform - with its risk of a political backlash - after such a detailed response may have put the Government in a difficult contractual position.
There is understood to be concern that the Government, having complained in the first place, might not be able to supply enough buses to meet ERG's proposals to introduce the Tcard faster. Only 14 days after receiving ERG's response Mr Watkins approved another letter to be sent to ERG, to say the Government's previous correspondence did not constitute any official move towards ending the contract.
Technical glitches have plagued the project from the start. With similar problems affecting other ERG projects around the world, its share price has plummeted. It has had to refinance to stay afloat.
But while software malfunctions continue to cast doubt about the ability of the company to deliver, the Government has repeatedly postponed important decisions about its public transport ticketing policies.
Those policies, which dictate how much people pay for particular journeys, are vital to the preparation of Tcard.
Transport bureaucrats have argued that the card is an opportunity to overhaul Sydney's mix of 70 different fare products.
In May a fare reform model prepared by Ernst & Young recommended shelving all integrated tickets and instituting a distance-based fare that would be charged for every leg of a commuter's journey. This echoed a 2003 report by the Government's top pricing adviser, Professor Tom Parry, which strongly urged fare reform.
If the latest model is adopted it would transform Tcard - which could theoretically calculate the cheapest price for trips across different modes - into a stored value "Tpurse", similar to an electronic Travel Ten.
It would eliminate the TravelPasses, which can be used on buses, ferries and trains, as well as the weekly RailPass. Last financial year government agencies sold almost 10 million of these combined.
Although each leg of a trip may be slightly discounted under the new model, distance-based fares could hurt those who travel to Sydney from further out, such as the Blue Mountains.
Mr Watkin's spokesman, Phil Davey, referred the matter to the ticketing corporation, whose chief executive, Elizabeth Zealand, and ERG's executive director of operations, Steve Gallagher, declined to comment.
ERG Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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