Four years and $270m later, Queenslanders still waiting to ditch their Go Cards

It was supposed to have already been rolled out across the state. Instead, a new public transport ticketing system that would lift Brisbane into line with Sydney and other global cities has progressed only to its second south-east Queensland trial.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey announced the $371 million “smart ticketing” system in June 2018 as part of that year’s state budget, declaring it would be delivered in four years.

A smart ticketing reader, which allows people to tap on and off public transport using debit cards, credit cards and smart devices, as part of the Gold Coast tram trial. Credit: Cameron Atfield

If this had been successful, millions of commuters in SEQ and 18 regional areas would now have the option of tapping on and off trains, buses and trams with their bank cards or smart devices instead of using the outdated Go Card.

Currently, the most obvious sign of the rollout on the train network is a trial between Brisbane’s Central Station and Ferny Grove. It began early last month.

The other trial, on the Gold Coast’s tram service, has been running for more than 18 months. In a statement acknowledging hold-ups, Bailey said preparations had also included the installation of 561 smart ticketing validators across 136 SEQ train stations and 230 gates across 19 stations.

More trials would begin next month and the government was “on track to have the system in place statewide by next year,” he said.

The NSW government, which uses the same developer as Queensland, began its first trial in July 2017 on the Manly Ferry. By November the following year, it had rolled out its system across Sydney’s entire train network.

London has been using contactless ticketing since 2014, and Bailey studied this first-hand as part of a broader $36,000, four-night trip to Europe in 2019.

Despite using the city, along with Chicago and Vancouver, to spruik the future Queensland system, he told the Brisbane Times this week “comparing Sydney or London’s system to Queensland is an apples and oranges scenario”.

“Those rollouts were around centralised major cities, reforming ticketing systems that are simply just not on the scale of what we are doing,” he said.

“We are talking about comparing a one city rollout, to a state that is thousands of kilometres in length and breadth. In fact, if we were to compare distances, if you drove a similar distance to our rollout from London you’d be in Ukraine.”

This does not explain why the progress in Brisbane remains stuck on one relatively small-scale and weeks-old trial on the Ferny Grove line. For this, he blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and “lockdowns, border closures, deaths and illness all impacting the way we do things”. The project was being delivered from across “numerous” countries, he said.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey has blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the stalled rollout of Queensland’s smart ticketing system. Credit: Dan Peled/AAP

However, budget papers show the government underspent on the project in the 2018 and 2019 financial years, before Australian or global havoc began or, in the case of 2019-20, when it was in its early phases.

The most recent budget papers reveal the government has now spent $270 million of the allocated $371 million since 2018. A Translink spokesman said the project remained on budget.

“Impacts [of COVID-19] include delays in software and hardware development due to lockdowns in Australia and overseas, and significant increases in delivery timeframes for key hardware components,” he said.

“In particular, global supply chain issues have in some cases more than tripled standard delivery timeframes across a range of key components and devices.”

Once implemented, the smart ticketing system will allow commuters to ditch the existing Go Card, meaning interstate or foreign tourists no longer need to seek out machines, advice or outlets. Concession cardholders will still need to use the Go Card until the full system is rolled out. Tickets will remain the same price.