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Action for Public Transport (N.S.W.) Inc.

NEWS RELEASE: PTTC Corporate Plan is Vacuous

posted Friday 30 January 2009

SYDNEY TRANSIT TICKET AGAIN IN DOUBT

The success of Sydney's future electronic transit ticket has yet again been placed under a cloud, the government's Public Transport Ticketing Corporation having bungled its latest production, its Draft Corporate Plan.

The plan fails to satisfy the budget, target, and performance requirements set out in Section 35ZA of the Transport Administration Act 1988. It is on display for public comment until Monday 9 February.

Commuters have described the draft plan as useless, non-committal, and pathetic. "The outcomes are described in terms so rosy and vague as to be incontestable," said Action for Public Transport secretary, Allan Miles. It contains no budgetary information, dates, or performance targets, and no names of board members, senior executives, or "shareholder" Ministers, or information on their length of tenure.

"The Corporation's sole task is to give New South Wales an easy to use transport ticket, yet it can't even produce a compliant corporate plan" Mr. Miles said.

"The ease of use of any new ticket will have a profound and lasting daily effect on the convenience of travel for thousands of commuters and visitors. The poor quality of this document seems to indicate a lack of respect for the public who have been asked to comment on it" Mr. Miles said. "It's an insult to expect the public to make submissions" he said.

"APT asked for the Draft plan to be recalled, but the Minister and the Corporation have refused our request" Mr. Miles said.

"The government's earlier attempt at an electronic ticket, "Tcard", collapsed in legal wrangles in 2008. The ill-defined nature of this plan, issued by a corporation headed by some of Sydney's most experienced transport professionals, does not augur well for Tcard-2" he said.

"The government also is at fault" he said. "It has again failed to institute a modern, simple, fares policy ahead of the new ticket" he said. "It's a classic case of the cart having been put before the horse". "The need for fares policy reform was obvious a decade ago, but was side-stepped, partly because of the urgency of implementing an electronic ticket for the Sydney Olympics" Mr. Miles said. "That, of course, didn't happen".

References:

Contact:  Allan Miles 9516-1906
Kevin Eadie 9819-6052
Jim Donovan 0428-609-208




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