Victoria’s myki public transport card could be scrapped by end of 2023

Victoria’s myki tap and pay system could be scrapped by the end of next year, with the state treasurer acknowledging the public transport cards are not up to global standards.

Myki was first rolled out more than a decade ago and has since been plagued with million-dollar cost blowouts and system issues.

The state’s treasurer, Tim Pallas, said the government was reconsidering myki, with the current contract due to end in November next year.

“The government wants to enhance travellers’ and public transport users’ experiences,” Pallas said on Thursday. “We’d have to say that [myki is] not the world’s best practice at the moment. We need to be alive to what more we can do and that’s why we’re having the engagement with stakeholders.”

Pallas would not say whether the system would be revamped or scrapped altogether, but admitted the current technology was not up to scratch.

“It’s moved on considerably in a decade since myki has been in place,” he said. “We want to make sure it’s fit for purpose and it’s a better customer experience than we have at the moment.”

Cities like Sydney, London and Singapore give commuters the option to use their credit card to tap and go on public transport. Visitors to Melbourne must buy a myki card in addition to adding funds to it unlike Sydney’s Opal cards, which do not incur a cost. A similar change in Melbourne will be discussed with stakeholders, Pallas said.

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When myki was first rolled out in 2010, it was more than $500m over budget and behind schedule. Despite the system failures, creator NTT Data was in 2017 given another seven-year contract for $700m.