off the rails

I have deliberately refrained from commenting on a major issue affecting Melbourne for some time and for several reasons. One, because I have had trouble grasping the problem. And Two, because I am not a regular user of public transport.

But that doesn’t mean I have not been mesmerised, watching a train crash in slow motion taking place before our very eyes and watching a government seemingly trapped and shovelling millions and millions of dollars of your money into a bottomless pit.

I am talking about MYKI.  The new ticketing system that was supposed to revolutionise public transport.  Already three years late, already costing a billion dollars, already hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, and no end in sight.

I’m grateful to Paul Custance of St Kilda who sums it up in three words in The Age letters page today. He calls it the Myki Mouse Club.

And it is. It has made the government a laughing stock over rolling stock.  On this one The Brumby mob wouldn’t know if a tram was up them until the conductor rang the bell. To keep the transport analogies going.

I mean they’ve sacked the boss Vivian Miners, although he says he wasn’t. And the Labor chairman of the public accounts and estimates committee, Bob Stensholt, gagged the opposition when they tried to ask the so called transport whiz if he had been fired.

Frankly, I’m glad he’s gone. Especially if he believes his own rubbish when he says things like ‘ All projects this size  encounter problems…, but if you look overall at the project’s progress, it’s actually well ahead of industry practice’.

What planet is he on? It’s three years behind schedule, hundreds of millions of dollars over-priced  and he still says ‘ Victoria can still be confident that it will have a world-class ticketing system’. When? For a billion dollars they could gold plate the carriages. For a billion dollars they could let everybody ride free for an eternity.

As Peter Knight from Collingwood says in The Age: a scanned-ticket system in Japan cost $440 million when installed in more than 400 stations. Did we ask them to sell us their technology?  Or how about the Octopus card system in Hong Kong? Fast, clean, efficient. You can even use your rail card to pay for car parking.

And the latest that Premier Brumby can says is that  he is ‘ disappointed with the progress’. Disappointed! That’s the biggest understatement since General Custer said ‘I think those Indians look friendly’.

He has the power to fine the controversial winning bidder Kamco  $50,000 a day for ever day the project is late. Do it?  They’re asking for even more money. Don’t do it.

You’re on the wrong train, Mr Premier.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2008