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| Sunday, May 17, 01:55:43am | [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, [9], 10 ] |
| Subject: Newspaper article By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia | |
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Author: 20 February 2003which may include vending, venue ticketing, parking, fast food outlets and tolling. |
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Date Posted: Saturday, February 22, 12:35:24pm In reply to: http://www.patersonord.com.au/ ERG 03 Dec 2002 's message, "  " on Wednesday, February 19, 07:19:03amNSW announces smart card fare system ----------------------------------------------------------- By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia 20 February 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------- The greater Sydney region is to receive a smart card system encompassing its entire public transport network, the NSW Minister for Transport Carl Scully revealed today. The ticket, in the form of a contactless smart card, will enable travel on rail, light rail, monorail, and private and public bus and ferry services. It will operate in the Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra regions, reaching as far as Lithgow in the west and Goulburn in the south-west. The transport network handles around 630 million passenger journeys each year, with revenue collections of approximately AU$800 million. ------------------------------------------------------------ The 10-year, AU$320 million deal was struck between the NSW government and Integrated Transit Solutions (ITS), a joint venture between smart card manufacturer ERG and Motorola. The deal involves comprehensive system design, development and testing starting now and expected to finish by the second half of 2004. ------------------------------------------------------------ During 2005 most of greater Sydney's transport systems are planned to convert to the smart card ticketing, and the system should be fully operational by 2006. It is expected that two million smart cards will be in operation at this time. ----------------------------------------------------------- The system was originally meant to be implemented during 2002, but was delayed by court action by US-based smartcard company Cubic, the company which previously ran the NSW ticketing system. The court action was resolved in ITS's favour in July last year. ------------------------------------------------------------ "One-card integrated ticketing will make significant customer service improvements by making it easier, quicker and safer to access all forms of public transport," said NSW Transport Minister Carl Scully. "A key benefit of having just one ticket will be that instead of queuing up to pay the fare, the preferred fare can be automatically loaded on to your smart card when it is required." ----------------------------------------------------------- The government expects to see savings from the new schemes as it relieves the State Rail Authority and the State Transit Authority from upgrading their own ticketing systems - a cost they have already factored into their capital investment plans - and the fact that the system will be cheaper to run and is expected to reduce fare evasion. ------------------------------------------------------------ The Department of Transport will recurrently allocate AU$25.9 million to the project for the next for years. This money is contained in the already existing recurrent allocations and will therefore have no impact on projected budget surpluses. ----------------------------------------------------------- ITS has also secured a deal with the government which will allow it to extend the use of the transit smart card to other applications which may include vending, venue ticketing, parking, fast food outlets and tolling. ----------------------------------------------------------- [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| Mr Fogarty said yesterday ERG would prefer get project financing | final structure whether sat balance sheet talks-financiers | Sunday, February 23, 03:41:29am |
| gain extra payments for early completion of the system commercial opportunities | gaining the rights extend applications for transit smart cards. | Sunday, February 23, 03:45:51am |