28 November 2024

Government was warned new MyWay+ ticketing system wasn't up to the job

| James Coleman
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Ticket scanner on bus

MyWay+ ticket validator onboard a Transport Canberra bus. Photo: Public Transport Association of Canberra (PTCBR).

Calls for an inquiry into the procurement process for MyWay+ are gathering momentum, with both the Canberra Liberals and the Public Transport Association of Canberra criticising the ACT Government for the bug-ridden launch of the new ticketing system.

It’s day two of the new $64 million system, developed with tech firm NEC Australia and designed to allow bus and light-rail passengers to tap on and off with a credit card, smartphone or new MyWay+ card.

But the teething troubles are persisting.

Public Transport Association of Canberra (PTCBR) chair Ryan Hemsley caught a bus to work this morning to again be met by blank screens on the ticket validator machines, with the bus driver shrugging and waving passengers on.

“It simply didn’t work at all – complete blank screens,” he said.

READ ALSO Transport Canberra apologises for disastrous first day of MyWay+ system

Mr Hemsley said PTCBR warned TC of this late on Tuesday afternoon, the day before the launch.

“Basically, we were provided with assurance two weeks out from the launch date that all the issues we had identified with the system – the reliability of the validators, the quality of the online MyWay portal, and a host of other usability matters – would be dealt with,” he said.

“But as we got closer to the launch date, we became more concerned these issues were not being addressed. We spoke to … Transport Canberra at 4 pm the day before the launch and told them we did not think the system was ready for widespread public use.

“And we were right.”

Transport Minister Chris Steel with the new MyWay+ travel card earlier this year. Photo: Ian Bushnell.

At a press conference on Wednesday, TC deputy director-general Ben McHugh apologised to “anyone who was inconvenienced” and claimed the system was ready for launch but also that “we knew there were going to be things that would only be exposed once we put it into service”.

“Today’s just the first day we’ve had 40,000 people use it,” he said.

He added that staff were working around the clock with NEC Australia to “make sure the bugs we’ve identified … will be corrected before tomorrow”.

In the meantime, there remains no financial penalty for not tapping off.

“Fares have been set to apply at the minimum during this transition period,” he said.

READ ALSO Alleged dangerous driver granted bail over car chase, gun seizure

Mr Hemsley said TC’s response “demonstrated an unwillingness to accept how many problems exist within the system”. He expected it will be “months” before Canberrans can enjoy the “genuinely world-class” public transport system it’s touted to be.

In a call that the Canberra Liberals subsequently promised to put forward as a motion in the Legislative Assembly, PTCBR wants an inquiry held into the MyWay+ procurement process.

“We’d like to know why the system that’s been rolled out – in many respects – does not match what has been contacted to be delivered,” Ryan says.

“It seems they’ve dropped the ball on some really basic elements of the system that are critical to get right if you’re wanting the system to be used by the public in a widespread manner.”

The new MyWay+ machines are still struggling to register when a bus has stopped. Photo: James Coleman.

Canberra Liberals leader Leanne Castley said, “The community deserves answers for what is an unmitigated and unnecessary debacle”.

“MyWay+ has cost the community $70 million, but it is not working, and we don’t know when, or if, it will be working as intended,” she said.

In a press conference today, Minister for Transport Chris Steel said there is “no suggestion the project is off-time or off-budget”, and remained “very confident” the deal with NEC represented the best value-for-money.

“We’ll obviously look at what’s put before us, but we’re very confident with the procurement process because we’ve gone out multiple times to test the market to deliver a solution that will provide us with a fit-for-purpose ticketing system,” he said.

Since yesterday, ticket validators are now working across 77 per cent of the bus fleet, and all except two of the 70 across light-rail stops.

Mr McHugh said this was largely achieved by adjusting the geofencing technology and allowing passengers to tap on and off within 50 metres of a bus stop.

Transport Canberra deputy director-general Ben McHugh. Photo: James Coleman.

He said teams were also out overnight and this morning testing how different phones react to the validators.

“We’ve identified that some particular devices, particularly those with larger screens – because the QR code fits to the size of the screen – has generated an issue with scanning.

“So we’re putting together a solution where there’ll be a smaller QR code sent to devices to try and address that issue. That’ll go out this afternoon or evening.”

He said the “vast majority” of passengers were enjoying a “seamless experience”, with an estimated nine out of 10 people being able to tap on and off with bank cards and phones as originally envisioned.

“We’re talking about days to get these issues fixed, not months.”

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Chris is doing awesome. Let’s not expect too much from our ministers. The teams are running. The hospitals are full. We’ve got four more years – just what we voted for.

I’m for Steele ❤️

Gregg Heldon10:41 am 03 Dec 24

Good for you. Keep taking that medication.
Chris Steele couldn’t organise a chook raffle in a country pub. And would blame others for that failure too.

The ‘vast majority’ of passengers and 9 out of 10 being able to tap on and off without problems? Really? Where did those stats come from? Clearly not any of the buses on which I have travelled, nor those of friends and colleagues.

That is just a baseless claim minimising and ignoring the issue that this is another failure by this government. They seem to be completely incapable of doing procurement well.

Just been told by Transport Canberra staff that the balance transfer function isn’t working at the moment and to try it some other time. (They didn’t specify when).

Didn’t work for me last Thursday afternoon, but I haven’t tried it again since then.

Hopefully it gives some instructions other than just some numbers and the word error, I went to the website on a PC and got nothing but failure. Any tips via the phone app? I can’t find the transfer funds from My Way option in the phone App despite following the links on the website.

Transport Minister Chris Steel with the new MyWay+ travel card earlier this year. Photo: Ian Bushnell. Chris Steel has the only functioning MyWay+ travel card. What did we plebeians expect from our Local Council, a miracle?

Scott Taylor8:36 am 02 Dec 24

I travelled to work this morning (Monday) and the system took ages to recognise my QR code. On exiting, it again took ages to recognise my QR code and then when it did, told me my ‘ticket has expired’. I logged into the system at work to see what I was charged and the system says I still haven’t tagged off! It is a complete failure and the fare-free travel system has to be restored while they fix it.

More failures from the government. They wasted $76m on a HR system before scrapping it. How long will this latest debacle go on for until they go back to the drawing board?

Why has it taken so long to install the new machines on the buses?
When they changed from the old magnetic strip paper tickets to MyWay, the entire fleet was fitted with the MyWay readers in a few days.
They had the old system down for 2 months, and haven’t completed the roll out.

Incompetence Royale yet again. How our government avoids accountability and plays the blame game astounds me every time a major stuff up occurs! Which is too often!!

A key item in a comment was NEC was contracted to ‘design and supply’. So much of the day one shambles is thus nominally down to NEC. BUT was the specification associated with the contract adequate and was performance of the contract adequately overseen by Transport Canberra staff suitably experienced and knowledgeable? And did NEC recognise any deficiencies and alert the Contract Supervisor in a timely manner. Transport Canberra’s responsibility also is to keep the Minister updated – particularly if significant contract variations or performance failures are looming.

The Minister ultimately goes down with the ship, but obviously cannot micro-manage projects (or issue orders to Department rank and file staff, and contractors as some commentators seem to believe).

What seems puzzling is that that this still could happen if either, at one end the Minister was concerned politically, and at the other end NEC was concerned about their commercial reputation.

How all this actually panned out in respect of where the responsibility is worn and what actually happened would need an inquiry, as suggested with enough legal power to over-ride ‘commercial in confidence’ and ‘privacy’ restraints, and require appearances and answers. BUT a formal inquiry costs a bomb too and ties up staff. To justify an inquiry there needs to be a strong expectation that the revelations from an inquiry will result in good economic and governance outcomes.

“The Minister ultimately goes down with the ship, but obviously cannot micro-manage projects (or issue orders to Department rank and file staff, and contractors as some commentators seem to believe).”

Yes, but what they consistently do is approve lower budgets than have been requested, and then expect the same results…there is a mountain of hidden liability in this place due to poor fiscal management and barebones structural management. A little incentive to provide more for less isn’t a bad thing, but in some cases the ‘departments’ should be handing back the money saying “no we can’t do this for that figure”. There needs to be much stronger executive leadership to push back and the government needs a massive overhaul to develop a business mindset. It’s a very sloppily run organisation that will only sort itself out when budgets are cut forcing cultural change.

How unusual that Steel oversaw another failed project which cost the ACT taxpayer tens of millions. This bloke should be sacked. He’s useless and incompetent

Absolutely but he & his partner have a new baby to feed so he needs the income.

And in the early 90s during the “Recession we had to have” I had 2 babies but was retrenched 3 times. Still managed.

These problems must have shown up in the pre testing period. Why weren’t they fixed then? Or why was the pre testing so inadequate? This is the problem when government don’t have to perform to get in. Even a bad Lib government occassionally would lead to overall better performance by both sides overtime. Whose going to lose their job for this stuff up?

If only they’d said “look, there’s a chance of a few glitches in the early days, but we’re confident the system should be pretty good, if not perfect, on day 1” then most people would have said “fair enough”.
But no, the trumpets of triumph blew a little too soon.

Why didn’t they just buy an ‘off the shelf’ system like that used in Singapore? Its transport system moves literally millions of its citizens every day, using a combination of physical cards and electronic purchases via phones and tablets. It would also have provided the perfect opportunity for a ministerial junket, something that doesn’t arise very often in the ACT.

“In a call that the Canberra Liberals subsequently promised to put forward as a motion in the Legislative Assembly, PTCBR wants an inquiry held into the MyWay+ procurement process.”
This fiasco needs to be investigated in a very publicly transparent way.

Let’s see how the “beefed-up Greens crossbench”, which has vowed to “to stand up for the community and hold the ACT government to account”, performs in its first test.

I wish you luck with that JustSaying.

@32roadster
I’m not holding my breath that the ACT Greens will back an inquiry – no doubt, Rattenbury will find some way to slither out of it.

LOL,
I’m sure there’s a few “Champions” of the ALP that will somehow find another government failure on public transport service delivery to be someone/anyone else’s fault than the actual people in charge.

HiddenDragon8:20 pm 28 Nov 24

“In a call that the Canberra Liberals subsequently promised to put forward as a motion in the Legislative Assembly, PTCBR wants an inquiry held into the MyWay+ procurement process.”

The issues at play here are highly unlikely to raise questions about confidence or supply, so here’s a chance for the newly liberated (sort of) Greens to exercise their new found independence in the public interest and support a genuine inquiry – which need not be a witch hunt.

Given Labor’s obvious anxiety to avoid doing anything that might perturb their core support group (the ACT bureaucracy), allowing them to be seen to be forced to hold an inquiry which might cause some discomfort in the bureaucracy would be doing them a favour – and the ACT community if it leads to better procurement processes.

2016 – Minister Fitzharris announced a new integrated ticketing system for buses and rail.
2017 – Government allocated $7 million in the budget to go to the market for a supplier.
2018 – Government promised new ticketing system would be ready for the start of light rail.
2019 – Light rail commenced on its own seperate ticketing system, new system not in sight.
2020 – Minister Steel announced a procurement process for the new system was underway.
2021 – Government announced MyWay replacement should be operational by late 2022.
2022 – Transport Canberra said the procurement process for the system was in the final stage.
2023 – Minister Steel announced NEC would design and supply the new MyWay+ system.
2024 – 3G network used by MyWay was closed, the MyWay+ rollout was another debacle.

They use jQuery from 2015. What security they are using something that predates this all.

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