Transport Minister Chris Steel has apologised to those affected by the botched rollout. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Transport Minister Chris Steel has belatedly apologised for the bungled rollout of Transport Canberra’s new ticketing system, MyWay+, the morning after Chief Minister Andrew did so on behalf of the government.
Last Friday, the Legislative Assembly censured Mr Steel after a damning committee report was tabled.
The report of the inquiry into the procurement and delivery of MyWay+ found that the public transport digital ticketing project was not ready to roll out on 27 November a year ago, was too large and complex, and highlighted poor risk management and project management practices.
It stated that the community testing was so rushed and haphazard as to be meaningless, and the ACT Government and Transport Canberra officials had ignored multiple warnings that the new system was not ready.
When he later fronted the media, Mr Steel refused to apologise despite being repeatedly asked if he should.
Today, Mr Steel issued a statement in which he did apologise, echoing Mr Barr’s comments made to journalists on Monday.
“I reiterate the Chief Minister’s comments that the MyWay+ rollout could have been smoother, and apologise to anyone impacted by the transition to the new service,” Mr Steel said.
“In hindsight, the project could have benefitted from a delayed launch and further explanation of features that were not available when the new system went live.”
Mr Steel said the government would do better with any future projects of this nature and size, including ensuring that the new digital agency, Digital Canberra, manages large IT products.
“My focus has always been on delivering a new public transport ticketing system for Canberrans,” Mr Steel said.
“We will continue to make improvements to the system and welcome any feedback or suggestions as part of that process.”
Asked at a Tuesday press conference if he had a word to Mr Steel, Mr Barr said the Cabinet had discussed the MyWay+ situation.
“We’ve spoken as a Cabinet about what went right and what went wrong with that public transport system rollout,” he said.
“We acknowledge in making a change that large with hundreds of thousands of users, we should have done better, taken more time, and with the benefit of hindsight, clearly, it was not ready to go on launch day, to the extent that we were advised it was.”
Mr Barr again said the government had been given bad advice on whether the new system was ready to go live.
He also indicated that while Mr Steel had not formally apologised last Friday, he had expressed his regret.
“Well, everyone will use their own form of words. Chris acknowledged responsibility for the issue, we have collectively, as a government acknowledged that, apologised, and we’re going to move forward,” Mr Barr said.
He said the new system provided capabilities it didn’t have before, and the ACT could not have stuck with the old system as it ran on the 3G network which was being phased out.
“But I think these major transformative projects, that involve hundreds of thousands of users, can be complex, and it does take time for people to get used to new systems,” Mr Barr said.
“But there’s lessons learned. We acknowledge that and we apologise for the inconvenience people have experienced.”
