Myki: Rolling Stock or Laughing Stock?

David Heath
Tuesday, 14 April 2009 06:58

Business IT - Technology

Bowen adds "Maybe some of these problems can be ironed out, but Myki is clearly not off to a good start. The flaws in the system are already evident, and will cause yet more chaos on Melbourne's already-suffering public transport system."

Other commenters have pointed out potential legal issues with the TTA's method of charging some 'maximum fare' for users who neglect to scan off (for any reason).  The argument boils down to the fact that it is unlawful to charge more than the advertised fare for a journey and that a fare must be advertised before money may be taken.  Further, if the error is a result of equipment failure, you will still be charged some excess fare.  This charging of the maximum fare is explicitly described in the "Fares and Ticketing Manual" mentioned at the beginning.

Should this erroneous charging occur, it would appear that a charge of "not fit for the intended purpose" would be relatively easy to prove.

Moving on, what of the actual cards, how secure are they?  For the long-term cards; quite secure for now (but nothing can be guaranteed).

However, the short-term cards are another issue entirely.  These are based on the Mifare Ultralite chip which is a stripped-down version of the Mifare Classic.  Readers may recall that the Classic's security has been well-and-truly broken.  Well, you'll be very happy to know that the UltraLite is simply the Classic with that pesky security sub-system removed.  Need a new card?  Just clone an existing one.  Want to add value or reset a card?  No problem!  In case you're wondering, dissection of a single-use card reveals it to be manufactured by Confidex.

Best of all, these cloned Ultralites won't be detected by ticket inspectors because the Myki system doesn't print on the surface of the ticket.  Unfortunately that suggests a new problem – without memorising the exact time of boarding, there is no way to know when your 2 hours is up and have migrated to a daily fare (or run out of funds).

What is the current status of the Myki project?  It is currently in use on buses in Geelong, Seymour and Ballarat, but it would appear to be used only on simple bus trips – there is no evidence of service transfers.  There have been simplistic tests on closed-service trips using TTA staffers to test transfers, but the results have not been made public.

A system originally budgeted for $300M has now blown out to over $1.4B.  We could have purchased an awful lot of public transport upgrades for that money.  We have also sent a lot of that money to Hyderabad – so much for the state government's "Multimedia Victoria" project to attract IT investment in Victoria.  But then, our political leaders have always been better at saying than doing (remember the old adage – "when all is said and done, more will be said than done").

I started this piece discussing the electoral issues associated with rolling out the full Myki system anywhere remotely near the next election.  Hopefully I've offered some reasons why. 

I can't wait to see the upcoming train-wreck.