Calgary Transit finally seems on right track

Listen hard enough and you might actually hear the cheerful clunk of that penny finally dropping into place over at Calgary Transit.

Just when you’ve given up hope of any small semblance of financial sanity ever being restored to city all, showcased in part by its stubborn refusal to let go of certain pet projects, there suddenly appears a strange light at the end of the CTrain tunnel.

And, hallelujah, this time it isn’t the oncoming headlights belonging to that regular express bearing millions of taxpayers’ dollars destined to go over the cliff of fiscal responsibility and crash headlong into seen-it-all-before territory.

Yes, indeed, we are again exploring the long-running and painful project of trying to introduce an automated mobile pay system for city transit users.

Nip back in time a couple of years and we find, after spending $5 million of taxpayers’ cash, the city pulling the plug on the infamous Connect Card experiment in automated payment when it was found less than useful during testing.

Or, to use the Orwellian phrasing beloved of officialdom everywhere, we were informed that: “Based on the testing, the EFC system could negatively impact the customers’ experience in paying their fares.”

Yep, it didn’t work properly.

That embarrassment was compounded by the rather salient fact that the transit bunch had used the same European company behind the smart-card-based system once before and had scrapped that one as well but, being a particularly big-hearted bunch, then decided to give them another chance.

Finally, after some less than pleasant words from council, the suggestion arose that instead of trying to reinvent the digital wheel by introducing a unique system designed specifically for Calgary, the transit brain trust should piggyback on the valuable learning experiences of those cities that have already suffered and worked through the bleeding edges invariably present in trying to introduce any cutting-edge technology gizmo.

And guess what? They actually listened. So now, in considering a smartphone app that can be used by Calgarians to swipe and pay automatically for any ride on the transit system, we are only going to consider those systems already in use and working successfully. Hey, as anyone who’s ridden or run in a longdistance event knows only too well, drafting off the person daft or confident enough to lead the way saves a huge amount of energy.

Or, as transit’s service design manager, Chris Jordan, said: “One of the critical elements of the request for proposal, and it relates to the reliability of the system, is that it be a proven product and that proponents can demonstrate success with other agencies.”

So, finally, after years of trying to be first and failing, we are putting egos aside and happily joining the rest of the “been there, done that” pack by looking for a suitable gizmo that is already working in cities similar to our own.

We’re also having contractors come to Calgary to make proposals for this app-based system, again an improvement from when Calgary staff would happily wander off to other parts of the globe to check things out — nice work if you can get it, especially if, after messing up, you can start all over again on the worldwide tour.

Remember these harsh words from Mayor Naheed Nenshi 18 months ago when told the transit department was planning yet another trip to check our mobile pay systems, this time to Vancouver, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia?

“Please, please, please tell me you are going to those cities for some other reason, not just to spend money looking at their smart card systems?”

Even at city hall a message, repeated long enough, can finally get through.

So how much is this going to cost and when will we see it? The city doesn’t know, but they’d rather take a little longer and get it right the first time.

Well, it’s not exactly the first time, but it might be the first time we’re doing it properly.

After years of trying to be first and failing, we are putting egos aside