Budgets earmarked for the majorly delayed national transit ticketing system, Motu Move, are "under pressure", a critical review into the $1.4 billion project has found.
The review found a "very high likelihood of further significant delays" to the programme and an inability to deliver the full scope within the committed contract value, according to a heavily redacted version of the report
LEK Consulting's 26-page report also exposed tensions with multinational provider Cubic, which is delivering the system, and local councils over the implementation of Motu Move.
But the review, which suggested the public transport project lacked enough public transport knowledge, concluded there was "no strong rationale" to halt the project.
The prospect of cost overruns would be another blow to the National Ticketing Solution (NTS), which has come under increased ministerial scrutiny in recent months.
A "reset" of the project occurred after the review, but the July 30 report itself has only been released this week. The release of the review's findings comes ahead of a roll-out of Motu Move contactless payments across Christchurch buses in November.
A revised "regional implementation schedule" for the rest of the country would be published next week, according to an NZTA spokesperson.
Wellington recommended to be prioritised in roll-out
As a result of "extensive" ongoing delays, the review found "both the NTS budget and public transport authority budgets are under pressure" due to the need to maintain existing systems such as Christchurch's Metrocard and Wellington's Snapper.
Reviewers recommended "urgently" making sure those legacy systems could continue to work as the new national system continued facing delays.
They also urged that the 10 regions using the Bee Card system be moved aside in the roll-out queue to prioritise Greater Wellington, which had "more immediate needs".
Snapper's contract with Metlink is due to expire at the end of next year.
Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash previously told 1News that it wanted to enable contactless payments on transit as soon as possible — even if it would involve upgrading the existing Snapper system.
Regional tensions over the new Motu Move system were apparent in the reviewers' report, including over fare concessions — discounts that are applied to different users depending on their status, such as discounts for children or SuperGold cardholders.
Meanwhile, Auckland Transport notified NZTA in May that it would defer design work on its transition to Motu Move until after the review was carried out "due to challenges with the programme and risks", according to advice to Transport Minister Chris Bishop.
A key finding in the LEK report was that "the scope that NTS needs to deliver is not locked down and is evolving as the programme progresses", with requirements becoming increasingly "obscure" since they were developed five years ago.
Governance problems were also called out, and it was suggested that knowledge about public transport and ticketing only existed in "pockets" within the programme team.
American multinational systems provider Cubic was also named in the report as needing to commit more "global expertise" to the New Zealand project.
It was previously reported that the technology supplier tasked with building out the system had suffered from capacity issues during development.
Reviewers wrote that Motu Move appeared to "have been on the backfoot from the start" with the project "jumpstarted without several key Cubic team members in place with a solid level of understanding of ticketing or the programme".
A spokesperson for the company said: "We welcome and acknowledge the constructive recommendations set out in the independent review. Real progress has been made since the review was commissioned, which was several months ago now."
Parts of the review with "commercially sensitive information" were redacted.
According to an NZTA spokesperson in early September, action had been taken on the 10 primary recommendations and 32 sub-recommendations from the review, which included "ensuring realistic resourcing commitments from all NTS partners".
"Three of the 10 primary recommendations and 13 of the 32 sub-recommendations have been closed out, and the remainder are being urgently addressed."
How did we get here?
A separate NZTA review in July found the NTS' benefit-cost ratio had fallen from 1.73 to 1.42, primarily due to extended legacy system costs and other delay-related costs, according to advice to Bishop.
Bishop had previously said he was worried about the project and that it needed to get "back on track". Last month, officials revealed the completion date of Motu Move blew out by a year, with a finished system only expected by the end of 2027.
At the same time of the announcement, NZTA announced contactless payments would be rolled out for Canterbury bus and ferry trips from mid-November.
It comes just a few weeks after the Government announced the introduction of the NTS (National ticketing system) in 2024. (Source: 1News)
This meant passengers would be able to use contactless debit and credit cards or phone payments to complete trips in Christchurch, Waimakariri and Selwyn.
But there were several caveats with the launch, with the region's existing Metrocard system remaining in use for concessionholders and for people who wanted to use a prepaid card. No Motu Move cards would be distributed as part of the November roll-out.
Unlike other major centres, Metro Canterbury also uses a flat pricing system on buses, with all standard trips costing $3, meaning the new system only charged one fare type.
The most recent set of delays follows a long development process for the smartcard, which has been developed by NZTA in various forms since 2009.
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