Tickets, please

I’ve mentioned the public transport ticketing debacle here before. It’s now worse – or better, depending on how you look at it. The [overpriced, late, broken new system](http://myki.com.au/)  is still overpriced, late and broken; but it looks like the current system is very close to being broken, too. It seems that we’re [running out of spare parts](http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/citys-500m-ticket-chaos/2008/03/01/1204227055164.html?page=fullpage)  for the ticket vending machines. We might get free public transport, whether they want to give it to us or not.

Here’s what I would do:

* Cancel myki – or at the very least, fire the company that’s supposed to be installing it. Don’t give them any more money, this is just throwing good money after bad.

* Find out why there are no more spare parts for the current system. Can we replicate them locally for less than $500 million dollars? I think so.

* Fire the project managers involved in myki. They obviously have no idea what they’re doing. Additionally, find out why the structure at the ticketing commission is so broken. Well-run organisations don’t let this kind of thing happen.

There’s something wrong with the way the whole system is set out, I think. Rather than trying to work together, all the different parts of the transport system are competing for money. The $500 million (or more) that’s going to ticketing is $500 million less for new trains, new signals, new tracks. That’s the problem right there.