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Saturday July 31, 2010

What we're talking about

Myki sets the world record for cost?

Posted by: Derryn Hinch | 24 February, 2010 - 4:57 PM

Amidst all the bumpf and all the bull---t a full page feature article in The Age today finally nails the Myki scandal.

The billion dollar Myki Mouse Club fiasco that would be funny if it weren't your money, Ralph.

The layout of the article looks like one of those full page ads for shonky Persian carpet closing down sales. And maybe that's appropriate.

It lists all the other smart card systems operating around the world.

The Charlie Card in Boston $108 million. Los Angeles Tap card $102 million. The Netherlands $188 million. Singapore EZ Link $89 million. Atlanta Breeze $83 million. The Chicago Card $120 million. Seattle Orca card - named after the whale - $42 million.

And the previously most expensive system. The London Oyster card $289 million.

But then as Clay Lucas points out in The Age story:

Victoria, it seems, is a world beater. The bill for creating myki is by far the biggest for a smartcard ticketing system - and it has yet to prove all that ''smart''. The Victorian opposition has compared the costs of myki with other smartcard projects around the world - and the results are damning.

The government admits that the capital costs for the troubled myki system are $850 million (although the Auditor-General in November last year had it at $775 million). This is more than three times the initial £161 million ($A289.4 million) cost of rolling out London's Oyster card, the next most-expensive smartcard. And there is still no firm date for when myki will be operational across the whole transport network.

I promised to try to make this a MYKI-free program but I can't, so - as I said - welcome to the Myki Mouse Club. Where and why did it all go so wrong?

What have been your experiences so far?

Blog comments Your Say

  • i'm voting for Ted if he scraps Myki and restors conductors and increases security on all trasport stations etc. Enough with the spin.

    Jayne Taylor Friday 11 June, 2010 - 1:28 PM

  • don't know where you've got the 188mln figure for the netherlands from.

    You would have to multiply it by 10 to get true figure.

    But that probably doesn't fit into the picture you're trying to paint...

    m_breeb Tuesday 23 March, 2010 - 7:45 PM

  • ROYAL COMMISSION PLEASE!!!

    Craig Friday 26 February, 2010 - 2:12 PM

  • It is a total waste of tax dollars. instead of doing it as it is done in other countries, the govt made the complexity of the zones and the number of concession types far more convoluted than any other country with a smart card system. Also the guy who heads up the maintenance company Tambro, who do most of the installation work and assited in the devlopment of the vending machines, also held a senior management role within the Kamco organisation. Not sure if the tax man has looked at that as a conflict of interest?

    eerin Thursday 25 February, 2010 - 8:42 PM

  • if one follows the money,where does it lead??also i recently read that the cost is up to 1.35 billion$$$$$$ and rising.

    thomas vesely Thursday 25 February, 2010 - 8:37 PM

  • Myki is a joke. an embarrassment and in my mind bordering on criminal incompetance on behalf of Brumby govt. How on earth can we waste so much money on what amounts to nothing.

    alexas Thursday 25 February, 2010 - 4:18 PM

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