de paper: C&AG attacks management for integrated ticketing ‘fiasco’

[Colm Donoghue]

C&AG attacks management for integrated ticketing ‘fiasco’

By Shaun Connolly, Political Correspondent
THE State’s financial watchdog yesterday delivered a scathing verdict on the management of an integrated ticketing project for Dublin transport services which has swallowed over €9 million and delivered nothing.


Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell said “heads should have been knocked together” early on in the project to stop it sliding so far behind schedule and over budget.

Costings for the Dublin system have spiralled from €29m to €42m and the scheme, which should have been launched in 2005, is three years behind schedule.




“By the end of 2005 €9.5m had been spent on the project without satisfactory progress being made.

“This was at least partly attributable to the way in which the project was being managed.

“Looking at the slow progress to date it is clear that governance of the project left a lot to be desired.

“In my opinion earlier positive action by way of knocking heads together might have helped put the project on a proper footing sooner and avoided at least some of the sum costs,” Mr Purcell told the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) was tasked with organising the ticketing scheme in 2002 and was overseen by the Transport Department. Mr Purcell added the scheme had been dogged by confusion over role of the RPA and that “underlying tensions” between the authority and Dublin Bus did not help.

Green TD and PAC member Dan Boyle said Transport Minister Martin Cullen should accept responsibility for the “fiasco”.

“We have spent millions and millions and got nothing. Mr Cullen seems to have a Midas touch in reverse when it comes to this sort of project,” he said.

Mr Purcell added much of the delays had to do with the failure to decide on the future direction of the Dublin transport market.

The C&AG had earlier revealed that the CIÉ group of Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann was threatened with having its funding withheld because of its “perceived lack of commitment to the project”.

Transport Department officials said a close eye had been kept on the project and CIÉ had been written to in December 2005 warning that its performance was being closely monitored.

[TomB]

Hooray for the C&AG.

And I think the blame game doesn't help anyone. The buck for this really has to stop with the Department of Transport and the relevant Minister: if there was a problem between the RPA and DB/IE/BE -- it was up to the DoT to step in.

What really really annoys me is that public transport already has too low a priority in politics, and wastages like this will improve nobody's appetite for continued public transport investment.

Nobody comes out looking good out of this, but Ministers O'Rourke, Brennan and Cullen deserve special mention for overseeing such a mess. Alas, I've no hope that with a change of government that things would be any better -- witness the relative silence on the opposition benches since 2002. Sure, Olivia Mitchell came out a few times and asked why wasn't it implemented yet, but nobody in her office bothered to carry out some basic research into the issue.

Despite the RPA's finger-pointing, they really do have to take a lot of blame for this issue too. The tendering process was totally fecked up, ending in everyone pulling out.

Why oh why they couldn't have
1. Agreed revenue-sharing rules between existing providers, which would also apply to new entrants
2. Tart up the existing (identical) luas and rail ticket machines to offer cross-network tickets
3. Agree specs for a smart card system, based on existing standards that multiple operators could provide

They brought out a trial on Morton's Coaches, then did a system for the Luas. Now you'd think they'd make the two compatible, right? Nope. Pointless whinging about people not playing fair when you don't have your own house in order.

Mind you, given the daily inability for Irish Rail planning staff to be customer-focused, it wouldn't at all surprise me if at least some of the foot-dragging accusations against IE were true.


I have a bit of sympathy for both the CIE companies and the RPA however, in the sense that they both have had muppets for bosses for a very long time.

[Colm Donoghue]

Originally Posted by Thomas Bibby

Hooray for the C&AG.

They brought out a trial on Morton's Coaches, then did a system for the Luas. Now you'd think they'd make the two compatible, right? Nope. Pointless whinging about people not playing fair when you don't have your own house in order.

Tell me this isn't so....

Thank God for the euro's... although I heard you can only pay using coins with harps on them....

[Mark Hennessy]

Oh Dublin Bus are rolling out their completely imcompatible ( even with IE(?) ) smart card in a few weeks.
Great little scenario we will have smart cards for every mode of transport and every operator, now if only we had smart people to co-ordinate all of these

[markpb]

Originally Posted by markh

Oh Dublin Bus are rolling out their completely imcompatible ( even with IE(?) ) smart card in a few weeks.

Will the ticket machines start getting their current stage from GPS before that comes in? Given the amount of times the drivers have the stage set wrong (Clontarf Road is oddly enough, not outside DCU) I can't see tap-on, tap-off ticekting working. Unless they're only going to port daily, weekly and monthly tickets to smartcard?

[Derek Wheeler]

First and foremost, many of us were uncomfortable with the idea of integrated ticketing being placed in the hands of the RPA and Id say the RPA themselves, were a little taken aback. The concept of integrated ticketing that so obviously has to include buses, doesn't really fit well with an organisation thats called the RAIL procurement agency. Blame for all this lies at the door of the current administration. In my opinion, the RPA was a "quick fix" solution to take the Luas project out of CIE hands, based on an extremely poor industrial relations culture within CIE. Our rather, inept, politicians obviously thought it was an opportunity to land both metro and integrated ticketing onto the laps of its new creation. Whatever about metro, the ticketing bit was very very misguided. Personally, I believe that the Government should have finally delivered on the Dublin Transport Authority, instead of the RPA. Its incredible ineptitude. When the DTA arrives (if ever as it was first proposed in the early 1980s) you'll have to wonder whats the point of the RPA or an "R n D" dept. in IE. Its all so simple. The only people who don't get it are the politicians, which is why the revolving transport mess will continue.The sad part is, they don't listen to P11....yet. But thats another story.

[Brian Condron]

I've found that a lot of people believe that the RPA is the rail equivalent of the NRA. I'd imagine at some stage in the future that there will be a railway NRA, isn't there an EU directive that the operators of the railway network must be split from the operators of rail services? However the RPA I expect will be merged into the DTA once the next round of projects get off the ground.

[Derek Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Brian Condron

However the RPA I expect will be merged into the DTA once the next round of projects get off the ground.

Without doubt a much better scenario, long overdue and should've been done that way to start with.

[sean]

TBH IMO the whole Integrated Ticketing "fiasco" started when the powers that be decided to pass off smart cards as "Integrated Ticketing" without any consideration for integrated fare structures or all-in-one maps or anything like that.

We need the Berliners in to sort it out

[alek smart]

Sean,you are SO correct.
The reality of the current situation is that instead of making any attempt at understanding the BASIC requirements of an Integrated Public Transport Ticketing system the "Powers that Be" insisted on applying the only principles they know....Civil Service politics.

We can hiss and boo all we like at Bus Atha Cliath,IE,Luas and Bus Eireann but the fact remains that each of these MAJOR providers were allowed to progress their own entirely stand-alone systems by the very Authority which is meant to devise and impliment overall strategy....The Government.

It can be argued that this very oversight authority even went further by allowing Mortons Circle Line Bus company to develop yet another stand-alone sortfa-kindofa smart(ish) card.

The key to ANY mass Transit ticketing system is for it to be kept as simple and as all-encompassing for the end user.
The US Marine Corps dictat of Keep It Simple,Stupid. (KISS) stands as the sole guideline.

With Bus Atha Cliath having far and away the greratest number of users and the greatest number of mobile and static purchase/validation points it surely stands to reason for that company to be used as the base point for any advance ?

Instead,several Ministers for Transport and more importantly Finance have hummed,hawed and yawned their way through Office without making ANY decision on the simplest,most basic element of a public transport system.....what fare and ticket system to use.

For example,in my daily work situation I have to sit and watch a highly efficient and flexible ticketing system (Wayfarer TGX) being reduced to a beeping flashing joke as it struggles to cope with the continued enforced use of 20 year old MCV technology nailed onto the side of it.

Its like purchasing a 72 inch Hi-Def Plasma Screen TV only to have ur granny plonk her 21" Black n White Bush down directly in front of it and watch tapes of Tolka Row while U want to watch the Japanese GP.

I can state categorically that eliminating the on-bus cash transaction would give an IMMEDIATE 20% reduction in bus dwell times which surely SHOULD be an essential goal for ANY City or Transport Operator.

If one takes this 20% figure and spreads it across the Peak-Time fleet of some 1,000 Buses it doesnt take a feckin rocket scientist to reach a conclusion which surely,by now,should be...Make it SO !

Instead we continue with the interminable hand wringing whinging and navel gazing which has kept us firmly locked in an outdated,illogical and archaic Fare-Stage regieme which cannot be explained top ANYBODY,customer or staff as NONE of the Fare Stages are marked on the relevant stops....The only marked stage-locations are the ones which managed to escape the Painting Programme due to lying in a ditch or some other authorized absence.

I did at one point have some hope that Prof O Mahoney would strike a blow for the Travelling Public by authorizing the purchase of a step-ladder and some Letraset numbers but it now seems she has a higher function to perform...

With the ongoing entry into service of the 100 new Buses it is a crying shame that nobody IN AUTHORITY has insisted upon the system being tweaked to allow the extra capacity to be fully utilized in a mobile role rather than as at present,sitting immobile at O Connell St stops whilst people bite on coins to check their validity....

Transport 21....? .....Wind and Pee i`m afraid.....

[Oisin88]

There used to be a machine selling travel 90s in the airport. If there were more of these machines in busy places, and if people used them, that might speed things up.