Fear of dire PR blamed for demise of T-cardElisabeth...

Fear of dire PR blamed for demise of T-card

Elisabeth Sexton
August 6, 2011

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/fear-of-dire-pr-blamed-for-demise-of-tcard-20110805-1ifii.html

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WHEN the NSW government abandoned a transport smartcard for Sydney in 2008, it blamed ''ongoing delays, failures and appalling project management''.
Now preparations for a $300 million legal stoush over the debacle have produced an alternative theory, that the technology was sound and the government pulled the pin because it feared ''a possible public relations nightmare'' caused by its own specifications for the contract.
A particular problem was a government requirement that passengers must ''tag off'' when leaving trains. If they forgot to do so, they would have to pay the maximum fare. Worse, because the card held stored value, commuters would not know at the time they had been charged.
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The company involved, ERG Ltd, has amended a statement of claim in the NSW Supreme Court to allege that the then Labor cabinet improperly intervened to end the contract between ERG and the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation.
Its amendments are based on three secret reports to the cabinet, which it obtained during a pre-trial exchange of documents ordered by the court.
According to the new claim, Bill North, of Lancestock Consulting Group, reported to cabinet in 2006 that ''the most likely, obvious problem with the T-card system which had been specified under the contract was commuters failing to 'tag off' and commuters not realising the problem until they had insufficient funds to travel''.
As 80 per cent of train stations were not gated, this was ''a possible public relations nightmare'', Mr North said.
He reported that the view of the ticketing corporation was that a government requirement that the T-card must dovetail with RailCorp's ''legacy'' ticketing system ''may be the main contributing cause of the delays''.
A second report in 2006 said ''no serious, systemic issues regarding technologies employed within the Tcard project could account for the delays''.
ERG now alleges the project was stopped ''to enhance the prospects of re-election of Labor government at the 2011 NSW general election, rather than for any reason connected with the performance of the contract''.
The cabinet ''did not act reasonably or in good faith or having reasonably considered the legitimate interests'' of ERG, the amended claim says.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport said this week the contract was terminated ''because ERG failed to deliver the contract on time''.
''The PTTC is confident that the court will find in favour of the PTTC and it is not appropriate to comment further,'' he said.
The allegations have triggered a rare court order allowing ERG to inspect 2007 and 2008 cabinet minutes before the trial.


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