T-Card
ERG has delivered smartcard solutions for public transport around the world ("Trial stalls as travel card is shunned", SMH August 27). Perth, Hong Kong and San Francisco have all successfully introduced integrated ticketing and while some of the projects went more smoothly than others, none turned into the unmitigated and scandalously expensive disaster of Tcard. We should be looking at the constantly changing requirements imposed by the Department of Transport and the agenda of its controller, Treasury. Treasury's narrow focus on maximising revenue per passenger is standing in the way of fare reform (Why is it that Sydney is the only Australian capital city without a zonal fare system?) and is indifferent, bordering to hostile, to the need for an efficient public transport system that doesn't penalise passengers when they change modes (eg, rail to bus to ferry). As the Tcard debacle demonstrates, what should be a given for a liveable and successful modern metropolis, namely the provision of an effective and affordable public transport system that encourages people out of their cars and onto public transport, has been abandoned in Sydney.
John Bignucolo
Drummoyne