Integrated ticketing update

Jarbury, who runs the excellent Auckland Transport blog, has tried to update the integrated ticketing progress for Auckland. It seems that rearguard action by the unsuccessful bidder, Infratil, is trying to throw spanners in the works:

Well, for a start it really does seem as though Infratil was completely lying when they said they would accept that decision, and have subsequently been pushing the case (again) that Snapper should get the contract for integrated ticketing, rather than Thales. Secondly, the decision by ARTA and NZTA to choose Thales as the preferred supplier of Auckland’s integrated ticketing system is separate to NZTA’s decision to stump up the necessary funds to actually carry out this project. This second decision was meant to be made by NZTA some time within the last couple of weeks at their October meeting. My understanding is that the meeting took place, but no decision has yet been released.

This seems odd.

The case in favour of an independent integrated ticketing operator (independent from the transport providers) collecting fares from passengers and distributing funds to operators, was pretty well made during the recent NZ Bus lockout. Imagine if the lockout had applied to the Infratil Snapper system workforce too, how would any public transport in Auckland have been possible for the 7 days of the lock out?