The government's plans to introduce a new public transport ticketing system that would allow people to tap on and off with their credit cards have fallen through after it failed to come to an agreement with a chosen provider.
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Transport Minister Chris Steel said negotiations with the preferred supplier had ended after it was determined its proposal was too expensive.
The government will now go back to the drawing board and start an open tender process after the year-long negotiations.
Mr Steel in February announced the government would replace the MyWay ticketing system. But the project had first been promised well before that.
Back in 2017, the government said it would go to market for a provider to offer similar services, allocating more than $7 million in the budget.
The move was informed by a study tour of the US and Canada taken by then transport minister Meegan Fitzharris
Mr Steel said, "It's disappointing that we did not get the outcome we had hoped, but we still remain committed to procuring a new public transport ticketing system for Canberra.
"We want a ticketing system that provides the right technology solution for our city but it has to be a system that is value for money.
"We will go out to test the market later this year for a public transport ticketing system that includes more flexible payment options as well as a real time app for customers to track services and plan their journey.
"We want to make it as easy as possible to access bus and light rail services through an account based system that enables fares to be paid using mobile phones or tapping on and off with a credit card."
The government was previously unable to provide a timeline for the replacement of MyWay.
But Mr Steel now says the goal is to introduce the new system in 2023.
The Canberra Times previously revealed the project was facing significant delays, with Mr Steel at the time blaming the COVID-19 pandemic for stalling negotiations.
Opposition transport spokesman Mark Parton said it was the "latest addition to a growing list of broken promises".
"The government started talking about this new ticketing system during the 2016 election and set funding aside in the 2017 budget, promising to replace the outdated MyWay system," he said.
"Labor and the Greens say they want to get more people using the network, but this tells me they really don't care."