Hooray!

I’m normally not one to dance on the grave of someone who’s just lost their job, but this is different. The person responsible for Melbourne’s new public transport ticketing system being about $500m over budget and 3 years late [has finally been sacked](http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ticket-chief-departs/2008/04/01/1206850910956.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)  from his $500k/year job.

Took bloody well long enough.

Is it just me or does it seem downright criminal to take that amount of money for doing what amounts to nothing at all? He was Australia’s most highly-paid public servant, and he made a mockery of that term. He seemed to serve no one but himself. Someone’s got to get into that job and kick some arse.

Hire me! Here’s what I’d do:

* Find out why myki is taking so long. Tell everyone the truth. Balls out. Go for it.

* Based on these findings, cancel the whole works (or not).

* Look at spending the money on buying more parts for the existing system (or even buying the company that made them, and putting the parts back in production. I’m sure it can be had for less than a billion dollars…).

* Pressing to get a single authority over the public transport system, and diverting money into buying more trains, upgrading the signalling and building more train lines.

* Make it really inconvenient for people at the Ticketing Authority to drive to work. No more car allowances, no more free parking. Take public transport! Then force the other transport agencies to do the same, through making noise in the media.

* As a sign of good faith, I’d ask for much less than $500k/year. Half that! I’m generous; I’d do it for $250k.

We finally have what we should have: people using public transport. Excellent. Unfortunately, the infrastructure is woefully inadequate to handle all these people. Careful what you wish for, you just might get it.