Transport Canberra had 'high degree of confidence' in MyWay+ system weeks before problematic rollout
Canberra commuters have been beset by issues ever since the new MyWay+ ticketing system rolled out last Wednesday. (Facebook: ACT government)
In short:
The ACT Greens say they'll back a motion from the Canberra Liberals for the Legislative Assembly to hold an inquiry into the rollout of the MyWay+ ticketing system.
Transport Canberra, who are in charge of the new system, said they will hold their own internal review into the decision to launch it last week.
What's next?
The Canberra Liberals motion is expected to be put forward later this week.
Transport Minister Chris Steel has told the Legislative Assembly that Transport Canberra had "a high degree of confidence" in its new ticketing system weeks before its official launch.
Commuters were beset with issues last week when the ACT government launched MyWay+ on buses and light rail services, with many unable to tap on or off on the new validator machines.
The upgrade is designed to allow commuters to tap on or off using their phone or bank card, rather than a physical card, as well as offering other functionalities like live location tracking of public transport vehicles.
Mr Steel said he received advice about the testing of the new system on November 11, more than a fortnight before it was rolled out.
"I was briefed that user testing had been completed as planned, and that Transport Canberra had a high degree of confidence in the system," he said.
"The 'go live' date of the 27th of November … was approved on the basis of that advice."
The ACT Greens have said they will back a motion from the Canberra Liberals for the Legislative Assembly to hold an inquiry into the rollout of the ticketing system.
Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said his party had a range of questions about why the rollout went ahead when issues persisted.
Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said his party will back calls for a Legislative Assembly inquiry into MyWay+. (ABC News: Simon Beardsell)
"We think it is important that there is some scrutiny of this to sort of look at … what were the right decisions taken and are there lessons to be learned from it," Mr Rattenbury said.
"Our key concern is that it's the rollout that's been the issue, and the question of whether there should have been more testing, more ironing out of glitches before the system went live."
The Greens were governing with Labor as part of a coalition government for the entire evolution of MyWay+, but decided to sit on the crossbench after October's election, and have not been around the cabinet table during the rollout.
Mr Rattenbury said assurances were made when he was in cabinet that the rollout was on track.
"The advice we were given, and this was at the end of last term, was that we needed a period of about, I think it was eight weeks, to sort of have this fare-free period where the changeover would be made and the machines would be installed ... on the buses, and the various other things would take place," he said.
"Certainly the assurance we were given was that that period was long enough."
Transport Minister Chris Steel said there had been some "teething issues" in the MyWay+ rollout. (ABC News: Adam Kennedy)
Internal review to take place
Concession holders were particularly affected by the issues plaguing the new ticketing system, as they are required to have the app or a physical MyWay+ card in order to claim their concession.
Transport Minister Chris Steel updated the Assembly today about the rollout, saying it had been "disappointing".
"There have been some teething issues with the system that have affected people's experiences of MyWay+," Mr Steel said.
"The rocky start to the rollout of MyWay+ has been disappointing and has caused inconvenience to Canberrans.
"However, Transport Canberra has been working closely with NEC as the delivery partner around the clock to resolve these issues promptly and to minimise the impact on customers."
Minister Steel said there had been issues with the technology which incorrectly identified whether a bus was at its stop yet, meaning people couldn't tap on or off, and a capacity issue on the first day of the rollout in being able to create QR codes.
Ben McHugh said Transport Canberra will conduct its own internal review into the decision to send MyWay+ live on Wednesday. (ABC News: Isaac Nowroozi)
Transport Canberra Deputy Director General Ben McHugh said it will be doing its own internal review into the decision to go live last Wednesday afternoon.
The directorate had been warned by advocates and unions among others that issues were present in the system before the rollout went ahead.
"I think we all expected some teething issues, but in reality, we obviously didn't expect them to be as impactful as they were on the first couple of days," Mr McHugh said.
"The combination of people getting used to new technology and how to use the new technology, and the new technology itself being put into the system probably created a little bit more disruption than we would have hoped, but we're seeing really great trends out there.
"We've got almost 100,000 people have now downloaded the app, we've got almost 45,000 active MyWay cards out there and we know that those methods [like] people using their credit card are working really well, and I just want to thank the community for their support and patience."