Automating fare collection : a major initiative in public transport
Overview
This Report deals with a major and complex project where virtually all tasks were outsourced by the Public Transport Corporation (PTC) under contract to OneLink, representing a private sector consortium. The Report identifies the recurring delays which have been experienced with the project and that final system commissioning, initially targeted under the contract to occur in February 1996, is still to eventuate. It provides further evidence of the risks associated with attempts to fast-track highly technical and complex projects, and that these risks are accentuated when responsibility for the bulk of development and implementation tasks rests with the one contractor. In this case, the combination of these two factors gave rise, over time, to numerous differences between the parties on the progressive status of system development. The differences became more pronounced as the extent of delays increased and a succession of revised commissioning targets passed without realisation. As the Report points out, a strong feature of the contractual arrangements is the direct linking of remuneration to OneLink with achievement of commissioning milestones and performance standards. This approach has proved to be a major financial safeguard to the Government.