During Estimates hearings on Tuesday 30 July 2024, I asked the Director General of the Department of Transport and Main Roads about the new smart ticketing system for Queensland's public transport network.
You can read my question and her full response below, or in the official Parliamentary record of proceedings (Hansard) here.
Mr BERKMAN: I wanted to start with some questions in relation to the new smart ticketing system. I understand the government has allocated an additional $22.8 million on top of the initial $371 million for Cubic, the private contractor to roll that out, noting again that the ongoing annual cost remains a secret. Director-General, when this smart ticketing system is finally delivered will it have the capability to handle 50-cent flat rate fares, including in circumstances where there is a failure to tap off?
Ms Stannard: I thank the member for the question. We are in the process of delivering smart ticketing, and the member will know we have fully rolled out on the rail network for the use of EMV cards that customers already have in their wallet, similarly on ferries and the Gold Coast Light Rail. Smart ticketing is also working to deliver new digital channels that will enable customers to self-serve and will be very helpful for them.
The flat fares that we are seeing trialled from 5 August can be implemented in that system. There are fare tables behind the system and we have done an upgrade to that fare table in readiness for the 50-cent fares so a customer on the rail network who would use their EMV would be charged 50 cents. In the process of preparing for the implementation, we have also changed the penalty that occurs if a customer fails to tap off. That is important; we need customers to tap off so that we get that good data about where customers are travelling from and to. We have lowered that fee. If customers make a mistake—and we understand that can happen—they are able to contact our call centre and we can reset. We call that the default fare. We have lowered that for the period of the 50-cent fares.
Mr BERKMAN: What has it been lowered to? What is the default fare now?
Ms Stannard: I am going to make sure I have got this right but I believe it has been lowered to $2.50. If customers tap off, they will be charged 50 cents. If they fail to tap off, there would be a $2.50 charge. That is the lowest default fare we had on the network prior to the implementation of the 50-cent fare so we thought it was fair to lower everyone to that point.
Mr BERKMAN: Again, in relation to the finally delivered smart ticketing system, will it have the capability to offer concessional fares as well with contactless payment and also, for example, for customers to access their trip history and tax invoices?
Ms Stannard: I thank the honourable member for the question. Yes, the fully rolled out system will certainly do that. Part of the plan is to enable concessions. What happens in smart ticketing is an account-based system is provided. Instead of the card containing smart information, which we have at the moment—the go card has information on the card—in the future with smart ticketing the information is held in the computer system, in the cloud, in the back office. It would know me as an adult fare paying customer and it would know a concession entitled passenger as a concession customer. Their EMV card, their credit card, their debit card or a token—the new Translink token, the card—would be associated with their account and every time it was presented to the system the system would know that is a concession and charge them accordingly. That is in the fully rolled out solution.
As you can imagine, we are concentrating at the moment on getting EMV onto the bus network. That is the next stage of the rollout. At each stage of this rollout, you would have heard us talk about customer trials. This is new for customers to be bringing their bank card and touching the network, trusting us with that information. We take that very seriously. Each time we roll out new functionality, we make sure that works well on that rollout. That is why you are seeing us test and trial as we go forward.
Mr BERKMAN: There is an allocation of $510,000 in this budget for marketing and advertising for the new system. I am curious to know how much of this money the government has already spent prior to this financial year on marketing the new ticketing system, and does any of that include Cubic branding?
Ms Stannard: I thank the member for the question. I cannot answer to the spend on the $510,000 right at the moment. I will need to seek some advice about what has been spent. Cubic’s branding is not something we invest public money in specifically. There are some small logos that are on some of the equipment. You might have seen it on the base of the vending machine or the podium style tapping equipment that we use. It is just equipment labelling. We do not seek to promote Cubic as the vendor in our marketing spend.
We do focus a lot on how customers can use the system accurately so a lot of our marketing and communication is about what new technology has enabled, you can now tap with your smart watch, you can tap with your phone. Our communication has definitely focused on all of those multiple ways to pay to make sure customers understand how they will be charged based on their use of that system.
I can seek some advice from my team during the session about what we have spent. Can I just understand that the question was, of the $510,000, how much has been spent?
Mr BERKMAN: That is right. How much has been spent prior to this financial year? What is left to be spent?
Ms Stannard: Okay, thank you.
[The Director General later returned to the question]
Ms Stannard: We do have a number of matters that the member for Maiwar raised. I will try and keep it quick so you can proceed. There was a question about smart ticketing. I can confirm that no money is being spent at all by TMR on Cubic branding. I can confirm that our marketing spend is used to undertake essential customer education and behavioural change activities, including raising awareness of smart ticketing, explaining how to use smart ticketing and providing on-the-ground support to our customers. The total marketing budget for the project is $3.6 million. The member pointed out there is a budget of $510,000 in the 2024-25 budget. That represents the budget that is remaining of the $3.6 million, so in each of the preceding years we have spent a small amount of that on appropriate marketing. The remainder is the $510,000 in this year’s budget.