Kill the NTS

Radio NZ reports:

The $1.4 billion national ticketing solution (NTS) has been delayed by a year with a review finding NZTA’s original timings for the plan were “overly ambitious”.

The nationwide ticketing solution would – for the first time – allow New Zealanders to easily tag on to buses, trains and ferries using contactless payments across the country.

It was meant to be on public transport across the country by the end of next year, but following an independent review has been announced that deadline would be pushed back to the end of 2027.

This is another example of the sunk cost fallacy. We have already spent so much on it, we have to keep pouring more money in. The NTS is a nice to have, not a must have. The vast majority of people don’t use public transport in multiple regions. You only really need such smart cards locally for regular users so you can have daily or monthly caps. But if I am just visiting a place for a day or two, then it is not hassle to just use a local card or eftpos.

The cost of this ticketing system will be more than three years worth of actual public transport funding from the government. That’s crazy. You’d be better to spend that money on buses or trains, than a ticketing system.