Monday, May 26, 2008

Mki farce

News today is that myki has been delayed yet again. Honestly I don't know why the government has persisted with myki for so long, but with all the hardware that has been installed on stations trams and buses recently we must be near the point of no return. Really we should have followed NSW lead and dumped the smart card system altogether. Kosky doesn't seem interested, so here is my suggestion.

I don't claim to understand the technicalities of the software problem, but it would seem to be related to the new features rather than the basics. Surely an interim measure can be made to get the hardware working as a direct replacement for the current Metcard hardware, which as the article states has been allowed to run down over the last few years. Just get the hardware selling and validating tickets the same way as the Metcard does now. As far as I can tell the hardware is all but ready to go, why not use it now rather than let it just sit there unused for 3-4 years?!

When the bugs have been sorted out issue a software update to introduce the new functionality.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

But there is always the possibility that it will never be completed then. As you no doubt know, Metcard was supposed to have scan cards for passengers but only staff ever got them.

Anonymous said...

Well...Ben, I would think that conductors would be more cost effective - and they are. At least they don't break down and we're giving them employment. They also provide security.

Kosky, along with her inbred bureaucrats, should be systematically demoted to senior cleaner.