melbourne afc tender

Decision nears on transport smartcard deal
By Dan Silkstone
Transport Reporter
December 21, 2004

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The question of who will introduce Melbourne's public transport smartcard moved closer to being answered yesterday when the Government-appointed ticket authority released a shortlist of four bidders.

Smartcard - a reusable, rechargeable public transport debit card - is due to hit the pockets and purses of Melbourne commuters in 2007.

The card, which will replace the current Metcard, is expected to carry credits of up to $250 that are used to buy train, bus and tram travel. Fares will be automatically deducted when the card is "read".

The smartcard contract is expected to be worth more than $300 million. The winning bidder will introduce the ticket system in 2007 and run it for 10 years. But unlike the current system, where ticket machines are owned by the contractor, smartcard readers and other hardware will be owned by the Government.

Among the bids selected by the Transport Ticketing Authority from an initial list of 10 offers, was a submission from ERG Transit Systems - the company closely associated with the initially troubled introduction of the Metcard in 1997.

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AdvertisementBut another company touted as a possible winner of the bid - United States-based Cubic Transportation - failed to make the authority's shortlist.

Cubic and ERG have been rivals for smartcard projects throughout Australia recently. Last year Cubic won the tender to introduce the Brisbane card, while ERG was the successful tenderer for the Sydney smartcard project.

Cubic unsuccessfully took court action against the NSW Government over its decision to award the contract to ERG - a decision some in the industry speculated might harm Cubic's chances of winning tenders.

The other shortlisted bidders are Australian firm Downer Engineering, which is introducing the Perth smartcard, as well as US company Keane Incorporated. The final bid is from a consortium led by Australian defence company ADI, in partnership with MTR, the owner and operator of Hong Kong's world-first smartcard system and French Company Thales.

Under the tender process set out by the Government, companies can bid to provide the entire ticket system (including the technology and software to run it) or tender for part of the project only.

Three of the shortlisted bids are for the whole system, while the fourth, believed to be the bid from Keane Incorporated, is a partial bid.

A spokeswoman for the authority said the tender process was on track to meet the deadline of announcing a winner in the first three months of next year.