Australia’s Second-Largest State Names Winner of Contract for New Ticketing System

Rafael Ben Ari

Australia’s second largest state has hired U.S.-based Conduent to a 15-year, AU$1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion), contract to build and operate an account-based ticketing system that will include open-loop payments, the Victoria state minister for public transport announced Monday in Melbourne.

The government chose Conduent over rival U.S. fare-system supplier Cubic Transportation Systems, which runs Sydney’s hybrid card-based and open-loop payments service and is also rolling out account-based ticketing and open-loop acceptance in Australia’s third-largest state of Queensland, home to Brisbane. The budget for the Queensland project was $AU371 million, including seven years of operation.

Japan’s NTT Data, the incumbent vendor in Melbourne for the current closed-loop myki card, was reportedly the third finalist for the new contract. Published reports Monday said Cubic was considered the more expensive option of the three vendors, and transportation officials worried that they would be locked into Cubic technology.

And Conduent has been known to bid aggressively to win contracts in recent years, which it did, for example, in Helsinki and Venice, along with Paris and Lyon in France. Winning the long-term contract in Melbourne could also help Conduent build its pipeline to position itself better if it decides to resume efforts to find a buyer or spin off its transportation unit. It had dropped the plan to do that last year.

NTT Data likely would have been cheaper than Cubic, as well, including avoiding the need to replace at least some of a reported 25,000 terminals. But the myki card has come under much criticism over the years for delays, cost overruns and technical problems, so choosing NTT Data–even if they’d wanted to–may not have been politically expedient for officials. The Japanese vendor has run myki since 2010 and got a seven-year, AU$690 million, extension that goes through November of this year.

Conduent is to take over in December, and the project calls for a two-year implementation. Officials plan for pilots to start next year. The system will cover buses, Melbourne’s large tram network, metro rail, regional passenger trains and perhaps coaches. Officials did not offer a breakdown for how much of the AU$1.7 billion contract would go to hardware and how much would be for operations.

The open-loop service would enable users to tap to pay for fares with their iPhones, as well as their Android phones, officials pointed out. A virtual myki card has been available for Google Wallet but not for Apple Pay.

Minister for Public Transport Ben Carroll, at a press conference Monday, declined to specify why the government chose Conduent over Cubic and NTT Data.

“I won’t go into the detail, except to say Conduent offered a superior package,” he said. “Above and beyond everything else, they showed that they have a very good value for money. But more than that, too, a proven track record from Europe to North America and now Australia.”

When asked if he feared being locked into Conduent technology like the government was locked into its existing closed-loop card program, Carroll said the “big difference from 2007 when myki was rolled out to 2023 when Conduent will roll out the new myki system is we are now not building the system and being a world first,” he said, noting other large Conduent projects.

“Indeed, we are taking a system that has been tested in Paris, in Dubai, in Montreal, in New Jersey, and bringing that system here to Melbourne,” he said. “So, we’re not the first responder for this new system. We aren’t the test bed.”

It’s not clear that these four projects are account-based ticketing systems, however.

A year ago, Conduent announced a three-year extension to its contract mainly to manage maintenance and upgrades in the Montreal region for the closed-loop Opus card. The transport networks serving the region handle 1.7 million rides per day. Conduent has managed at least parts of the system for nearly 20 years.

Two years ago, the company announced with France-based Flowbird a contract to replace all bus and tram “onboard ticketing platforms,” including validators, for the Paris region. Conduent won a separate contract to supply a back office for Paris around four to five years ago for around €60 million (US$68.5 million), Mobility Payments has learned.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority, or RTA, only last year issued a request for proposal for an account-based ticketing system, for which Conduent was one of the bidders.

Moreover, some of Conduent’s projects have run into problems in North America and Europe.

Conduent suffered a big setback with its fare project for U.S. transit agency SEPTA in Philadelphia, when the agency issued tender documents for practically a brand-new fare system. Conduent’s Key card system had been beset by delays and cost overruns. After 11 years, SEPTA had reportedly paid the vendor $263 million, more than twice as much as the project was originally supposed to cost.

Conduent is also believed to be struggling with one of its biggest contracts in Europe–providing a non-open-loop transit ticketing system to eight transit agencies in the Lombardy region, including passenger rail operator Trenord and Milan public transit operator ATM, Mobility Payments has learned. Conduent had announced this contract in 2018.

Conduent saw sales in the transit solutions unit, part of its Transportation division, fall by 13.7% to $226 million last year, down from $262 million in 2021.

Sales in the entire division fell by 5% in 2022, to $709 million. The division includes road tolling and parking. Conduent blamed unfavorable currency exchange rates and “slower than anticipated implementation of new business contracts” for the drop in revenue in the division.

Sales in the division fell by another 7.4% during the first quarter of this year. The company projected revenue would recover during the second quarter.

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