An Australia-wide study of smartcard ticketing by a leading tourism and transport advocacy group gives Go Card two thumbs up
August 3, 2010
TransLink’s Go Card has come up trumps as Australia’s best public transport smartcard, according to the Tourism and Transport Forum.
TTF Managing Director Christopher Brown says other states could learn from the successful implementation process of smartcard ticketing across south-east Queensland’s bus, rail, and ferry network.
“Our research has found that when it comes to integrated smartcard ticketing in Australia, Go Card is the best there is,” Brown says, adding other states are taking notice.
“The NSW Government has recently signed Cubic Transportation Systems, the company responsible for Go Card, to install a similar system in Sydney.”
Brown says smartcard ticketing is the way forward and is essential for a modern, efficient and appealing public transport system.
“Queensland has overcome the challenges of introducing smartcard technology across a complex network and now commuters and transport operators are enjoying the benefits.”
He says Go Card has cut passenger boarding time form 11 to three seconds.
“When you add this up across a day, over an entire network, these are significant time savings.”
Brown says smartcard systems allow transport agencies to better map KPIs, patronage levels and travel patterns.
“With all this new, more accurate data, Queensland transport agencies can plan services to meet the real needs of commuters,” he says.
“Go Card is Australia’s most successful smartcard ticketing system and it’s no surprise more than a million smartcards have been issued and used for 60 precent of journeys.”
TTF’s position paper ‘Smartcard ticketing on public transport’ advocates smartcard technology across all transport modes, identifying implementation challenges, recent innovations and new projects.