New smartcard fare system opens in New South Wales

New smartcard fare system opens in New South Wales

A new smartcard ticketing system went into use for the first time earlier today in the New South Wales, Australia public transportation system. The introduction of the new plastic cards went off largely without a hitch.

The TCard system was originally planned to be installed in 2005, and was supposed to unite the entire public transportation system under one payment solution. The MyZone system that was put into place instead is slightly less ambitious, only affecting train, bus and ferry transportation.

The NSW government was concerned that there would be delays with the introduction of the new system, but initial reports indicate that MyZone’s debut was rather uneventful. There were some issues with the ticketing machines on Sydney buses, though.

"I’m pretty sure no one missed the train though. Looked like everyone got served in time," the NSW government’s Shane Perris told Dynamic Business.

According to a recently released report from the Smart Card Alliance, smartcard-based fare collection systems can boost customer satisfaction as well as reduce delays and maintenance costs.

Related ID News:

1. HP to operate smartcard fare system in Ireland
2. ACTION buses to trial new smartcard fare system
3. Bristol, UK will expand its smartcard fare system in August
4. TransLink’s smartcard system to cost far less than Toronto’s fare system
5. Ottawa considering plastic ID cards for transit fare collection

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 5:54 pm and is filed under Plastic Cards News, Transportation ID News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.