The completion date of the New Zealand Transport Agency’s troubled national public transport ticketing system Motu Move has blown out by a year as an independent review disavows an “overly ambitious” timeline for the $1.4 billion project.
Officials conceded that a finished system would be delayed to the end of 2027 as they announced progress in what was termed a “reset” of the National Ticketing Solution (NTS) earlier today.
Christchurch bus and ferry passengers would soon receive a taste of Motu Move with contactless card and phone payments coming from mid-November, NZTA revealed.
But that rollout — which will see new terminals being installed from tomorrow — will not include actual Motu Move cards and will only be for passengers paying standard adult fares with the city’s longstanding Metrocard system remaining in place for now.
NZTA chief customer and services officer Sarina Pratley signalled that the new post-reset rollout would feature “more manageable incremental” releases.
Review finds problems in $1.4bn project
She said independent reviewers found the transport agency was “overly ambitious” with the original timeframes of delivering the project by the end of next year.
“This finding is acknowledged,” Pratley said.
“The challenge has been accommodating a broad range of localised requirements into one national technical solution. NZTA has used the review’s insights to get agreement for a more manageable incremental release plan for the technical solution.”
She said the project was complicated by a requirement to support five national and additional local fare concession structures — these include discounts for certain users such as children, students, or SuperGold cardholders.
As recently as March this year, transport officials were confident the project would be completed across the country by the end of 2026.
But after missing its third launch target in nine months, Transport Minister Chris Bishop urged officials to get “back on track” in June.
According to an NZTA spokesperson, the subsequent independent review into the programme made 10 primary recommendations and 32 sub-recommendations, which included “ensuring realistic resourcing commitments from all NTS partners”.
“Three of the 10 primary recommendations and 13 of the 32 sub-recommendations have been closed out, and the remainder are being urgently addressed.”
Pratley said: “A new programme director has been appointed, the programme’s governance structure is being reviewed to strengthen decision-making, a restructure of the programme is underway to ensure it has the right resources to be successfully delivered, and additional resource has been committed to the NTS … by the partners.”
Chch new and old system to operate simultaneously
The new Motu Move system could be used for contactless payments for bus and ferry trips from mid-November, according to Environment Canterbury.
This means passengers can use contactless cards, such as Visa or Mastercard, or phone payments to complete trips in Christchurch, Waimakariri and Selwyn. Unlike other major centres, the region uses a flat fare system on buses with all standard trips costing $3.
Environment Canterbury chairperson Craig Pauling said the first phase would provide a simple way to pay alongside cash and the existing card system.
“While Motu Move will ultimately replace our current ticketing system, this first phase will simply provide an additional way to pay alongside Metrocard and cash,” he said.
“While the delays in the project have been disappointing, it will be great to finally make travelling on our network easier, especially for casual users and visitors who might not have a Metrocard.”
Other features of the system such as tagging off, Motu Move cards, and concessions “will be introduced in future phases”, a council spokesperson said.
Kiwis will have the option of paying for public transport with their debit or credit card, or digital payment method. (Source: 1News)
A revised national rollout plan for the Motu Move system would be finalised later this month, according to an NZTA spokesperson.
A redacted version of the independent review and its recommendations would also be released later this month, “following consultation with our commercial partners”.
The latest twist in the IT programme saga follows a tortured decade-long process to develop a national transport ticketing system in New Zealand.
This year’s delays follows a long development process for the smartcard system, which has been put together by NZTA in various forms since 2009.
