Queensland 'go' card crowned best in Australia

Much maligned smartcard wins industry praise.

National industry group Tourism and Transport Forum named Queensland's 'go' smartcard Australia's best integrated public transport ticketing system.

Its "Smartcard Ticketing on Public Transport" report issued today followed criticism of scanner faults, a security breach and a poorly received publicity campaign.

The forum's managing sirector Christopher Brown said the system provided transport agencies with new, more accurate data to better map patronage levels and travel patterns.

The card had also cut the time taken for passengers to board busses, trains or ferries from 11 to three seconds, he said.

"When you add this up across a day, over an entire network, these are significant time savings," he said, noting that "other states [were] taking notice" of the system.

Queensland Transport Minister Rachel Nolan welcomed the report, comparing the go card to Victoria's delayed, $1.3 billion Myki, and NSW's discontinued Tcard project with ERG.

Since its July 2008 launch, Nolan said the card had become "part of south-east Queensland lifestyle", with 1.3 million cards issued and used for two thirds of the region's daily public transport trips.

Nolan said the State Opposition's "constant criticism" of the go card "looked ridiculous" in light of the forum's report, noting that the cards were used more than 450,000 times per day.

Nolan said the State Government had distributed almost 300,000 go cards with $10 credit in a $4 million publicity campaign during June and July.

On July 6, Queensland transit authority Translink was reported to have given away only 110,000 of the 370,000 available free cards.