no wonder tcard failed...Lack of will killed Tcard, papers...

no wonder tcard failed...

Lack of will killed Tcard, papers show
Linton Besser Transport Reporter
June 11, 2008

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THE State Government never formally ordered its transport agencies, RailCorp and the State Transit Authority, to co-operate with the development of Tcard for Sydney's weary commuters.

In court documents obtained by the Herald, the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation says the agencies were never required in the Tcard contract to provide "any level, of engagement, support and co-operation" for the shift to the integrated ticketing system.

The revelation comes after ERG Limited, which had its $367 million, 10-year agreement terminated in January, lodged a $200 million counter-suit against the NSW Government.

The legal dispute began in April when the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation launched a $90 million suit against ERG to recoup what it spent on the project.

But ERG says RailCorp and State Transit contributed to the project delays that eventually killed Tcard.

In court papers, it says a RailCorp tester obstructed one trial of the equipment by holding his thumb over an electronic sensor then reporting that the machine had failed to cope with jammed tickets.

The Government denies this specific allegation. However, lawyers for the corporation say they were never contractually required to ensure both State Transit and RailCorp co-operated with the project.

"There was no requirement pursuant to the contract for there to be committed, or any level, of engagement, support and co-operation by the operators," their cross-claim response reads.

Instead, the Government says ERG "agreed to bear the risk of any delay in performance resulting from a lack of engagement, support and co-operation by the operators".

ERG has claimed that delays were also the result of being asked to perform additional work that was not a feature of the original contract, like the 2004 decision to give Tcards to school students.

But the corporation says ERG waived any claim it may have had over these delays when it signed an "amending agreement", including "any claim for an extension of time".

ERG alleges in its log of claims that RailCorp had drastically slowed the introduction of the project by forcing ERG to not only replicate the existing "legacy" technology, but also to replicate the glitches in that technology.

It says that when changes were made to such software its staff were not informed.

The Government agrees that ERG was required to ensure its software was compatible with RailCorp's EFTPOS and general ledger systems.

But its lawyers say "there was no requirement under the contract that RailCorp inform [ERG] of the detail of upgrades to [that] software".

And while the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation says RailCorp did occasionally give ERG the results of the testing it conducted on its legacy systems, there was no contractual obligation to give ERG those results "in a timely manner".

ERG says the fact that RailCorp failed to provide this information quickly "caused or contributed to delays and difficulties on the project".

Similarly, the Government admits ERG had to build software that communicated between Tcard software and State Transit's own program that gathered data on daily bus services.

But in its court statement, the ticketing corporation says: "There was no requirement under the contract that STA provide [ERG] with accurate [STA software] data in a timely manner."

The Government reveals in the statement that it stopped the installation of Tcard equipment on buses for a month in September 2006 because "defects in the integrated ticket system had resulted in inaccurate recording of takings [and] there was poor workmanship by [ERG] in the installation of the equipment".