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Other countries had it before Melbourne and rolled it out smoothly. Hong Kong launched theirs in 1997. 11 years prior. Melbourne could have easily bought it off
by killingtime74 2y ago
Other countries had it before Melbourne and rolled it out smoothly. Hong Kong launched theirs in 1997. 11 years prior. Melbourne could have easily bought it off the shelf. Melbourne was not early by any measure
- sytringy05 2y agoThe issue with myki wasn't the card technology, it was the fact they wanted to have standardised ticketing across the entire state. eg Tap on a bus, tram and train in Melbourne, get off in Wangaratta and tap on to a bus there. There was going to be something like 29 zones, and all the requirements / edge cases / mucking around sent the cost through the roof.
- killingtime74 2y agoWhat I'm trying to say is that it was mismanagement, which was well known at the time. Hong Kong also has Metro, trains (at the time), buses, trams, ferries. All from different companies. In Melbourne they are actually mostly under the same government agency.
- pwagland 2y agoThe Hong Kong system's backend, and large parts of the frontend, was also written by an Australian company, ERG at the time, now VIX. So there was plenty of local skills that _could_ have been used.
- killingtime74 2y agoThat's interesting history! It goes to show what could have been if they asked around.
- mistrial9 2y agopeople in hong kong had cellphones before the year 2000