Bosses knew of problems with travel pass plans

‘Get Me There’ city ticket plan on a road to nowhere

COUNCIL bosses knew the region’s ‘Oyster card’ ticketing system could be in crisis in June, we can reveal – despite the M.E.N. being told at the time that everything was on track.

We revealed this week how Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) had scrapped its agreement with the contractor in charge of rolling out the ‘Get Me There’ smart ticketing scheme after ‘considerable’ delays to its roll-out.

It has now emerged that council bosses have known there were real problems with the roll-out since the end of June – and transport chiefs for even longer. Although no public report was published on the matter, the region’s 10 council leaders were informed the contract might have to be terminated during a private verbal briefing at that month’s combined authority meeting.

One senior source said there was ‘disbelief ’among the politicians present that the situation had got to that point.

However, when the M.E.N. asked TfGM days earlier whether there were any delays to the scheme, the body pointed to its original timetable – which had indicated paying travellers would be able to use the service by summer of this year – as being accurate and up to date.

In fact the Get Me There system is still only usable for concessionary pass holders and it is now unclear when it will be rolled out further, although more details are expected in the next six months.

As a result of the delays, TfGM has terminated its contract with contractor Atos and a compensation agreement has been signed. It is understood that deal has only been agreed in the past few days. The M.E.N. asked Atos what caused the delays but the firm – which has been in the headlines previously over its running of the government’s ‘fit-to-work’ assessments for people on sickness benefit – refused to comment.

TfGM has indicated the taxpayer will not be out of pocket as a result of the fiasco. It remains unclear whether an updated scheme being put together over the coming months could see costs of the overall project ultimately rise.

A spokesman said: “The secured settlement agreed with Atos meets all the direct costs incurred in connection with the project to date.”

It is unclear what ‘direct costs’ refers to, however, and the exact terms of the agreement remain closely guarded.