One of the great conceits of modern times is that technology can solve any problem – the problems of Sydney’s transport system is an example of how IT can’t overcome managerial incompetence.
The irrepressible New Australian has a good post about Sydney transport system and its battles with the opal card.
Australian governments have been troubled with smartcard ticketing systems for decades, the Opal Card itself was promised in time for the Sydney Olympics thirteen years ago. Little has been done since.
The fundamental problem is that governments are being sold technology solutions to fix management and political challenges.
In Sydney’s case the problem is a complex fare structure and a Balkanised public transport system – check the situation for a commuter wanting to travel from Parramatta to the city.
- Ferry fare $7.20
- Train fare $5.00
- Bus fare $4.60
The above fares are the standard single journeys, to make matters worse there’s a mind boggling range of concession, off-peak and periodic fares whose structure owes more to political opportunism, managerial incompetence and agency jobsworths protecting their turf than any logic or fairness.
Without a logical or consistent to calculating the fares, computer algorithms have no hope – managerialism trumps coding every time.
Basically Sydney has no chance of getting their system working properly without having an integrated fare and management structure. Technology cannot fix this problem.
This is not just a Sydney problem A great example of how incompetent management can screw up what should be a straightforward implementation is in Melbourne which has a comparatively simple time based price structure.
Melbourne’s Myki card has had a similarly troubled life being delivered decades late, hundreds of millions over budget and being so user unfriendly it seems designed to solve the city’s transport overcrowding problem by chasing away passengers.
Basically management incompetence by arrogant bureaucrats and ignorant ministers doomed Melbourne’s project from the start.
Australian governments aren’t the only organisations that fall for the fallacy that technology can solve their problems, around the world corporations and public agencies have made the same mistake.
This is something technologists, and more importantly taxpayers and shareholders, should keep in mind when a CEO or minister is trumpeting the latest technology to fix their organisation’s woes.
Image of the Opal Card brochure courtesy of The New Australian
Until the Syndey transport fare system is standardised (for example; zonal, like London), there is little likelihood of a single ticketing system being either a success or much point.
It seems strange that the technology is being implemented before the agreement to the changes to the fare structure have been agreed. The cards and card readers has been proven, wouldn’t it have been better to spend the time up front to negotiate the fares and then undergo a rapid implementation with less duration, less disruption, less risk and certainly less cost?