D’oh! A malfunctioning MyWay+ ticket validator onboard a Transport Canberra bus. Photo: Public Transport Association of Canberra (PTCBR).
Disaster. Debacle. Botched.
That’s how the switchover to the new public transport ticketing system My Way+ has been described.
Really?
Did anyone really expect that the rollout of a complex piece of tech would go smoothly from day one?
But apart from some buses running a bit late due to the time it took for passengers to tap on or off or not all, and some people missing connections, nothing terrible happened.
Some passengers just enjoyed more of a free ride.
An inconvenience, yes, but some Canberrans need to get a grip about what has happened.
It doesn’t matter how much testing was done; the only test that was always going to matter was when the whole system went live.
A little over a week later and MyWay+ is settling down as provider NEC apply fixes and rolls out updates and whatever else happens in the back end, under the hood or choose your favourite analogy.
One problem was that the ACT Government and Transport Minister Chris Steel raised everyone’s expectations about the benefits of the new system without adding a few caveats that would have limited some of the flak Labor is taking from just about everyone.
MyWay+ was oversold to the point that, come launch day, nobody was prepared for inevitable teething issues.
The government also underestimated how many people wanted to keep using a travel card instead of their debit/credit card, which is the key advantage of the new system.
There just weren’t enough MyWay+ cards available to meet demand. Perhaps these people want to quarantine their public transport spend from the rest of their purchases.
But you can pay by debit/credit card without having to download the app or even have an account. That seems pretty simple to me.
And if it doesn’t work, that’s one more free ride. But that is likely to happen with ever-decreasing frequency.
Canberrans were given six weeks to prepare, but I guess they can plead that the election got in the way.
After a week of bad headlines, social media frenzy, political gaming and Transport Canberra damage control (kudos to Ben McHugh), the conduct of the rollout will go to an Assembly committee inquiry.
Opposition Leader Leanne Castley instigated that motion, but it was interesting that it was the Greens who wielded the biggest brickbat, no doubt finding their newfound freedom exhilarating.
Mr Steel, outnumbered in the Assembly, had no option but to welcome the inquiry. At the same time, he threw Transport Canberra under the bus.
It was confident the system would cope. He took their advice. Yes, it was disappointing.
It’s a trend for ministers to do this, but Mr Steel has felt the need to do it more than most ministers have in recent times.
Ministers do not necessarily have to take bureaucrats’ advice, and in the end, the decision rests with them.
Perhaps there isn’t enough contestability within the Minister’s office or the bureaucracy.
Whatever the case may be, it’s time for Mr Steel and other Ministers to own their decisions.
MyWay+ and its associated features look like they are being bedded down, and issues are being ironed out.
If, in a couple of weeks, the system is functioning mostly as it should, that will be a good result. Mr Steel is right to say MyWay+ is a long-term solution, and a 10-year contract is in place with provider NEC, which has all its obligations to make it work and keep it functioning.
But if in, say, six months, passengers are still being inconvenienced, the system is full of bugs or public transport is bleeding revenue, then the travelling public might well be justified in calling for heads.
For now, let’s just wait and see. And stop the catastrophising.
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