Once again the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) has disappointed commuters of the four electric train rail routes in Bangkok. It came out to say on Wednesday that the planned implementation of the common ticketing system on the four rail lines will face another delay of more than a year from the initial plan of having it up and running by October this year.
The disgraceful delay was announced by acting MRTA governor Rithika Suparat, who said the common ticketing system for Bangkok's public transport, the so-called Mangmoom (spider) card, would not be launched in time.
In view of previous announcements, little did one realise that the system would not be up and running at least until 2019.
According to the MRTA, the companies involved -- namely BTS Group Holdings Plc, which operates the BTS skytrain, Bangkok Expressway and Metro Plc, which runs the Blue Line, and the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning -- have not even agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) yet.
The initial plan was to test the system with the newly launched Purple Line before it was to be expanded in the future, so that commuters could use a single pass which would enable them to take any of the mass transit system. Disappointingly, with the latest statement from the MRTA, the entire process looks like it has gone out of the window.
According to Mr Rithika, once the companies involved agree to sign the MoU, it will take 10-12 months to install the system. And then the companies will form a joint-venture subsidiary to manage this, with the implementation likely in 2019.
This is not the first time that the so-called Mangmoom system has faced delays. Just about a year ago, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith announced that the expected implementation of the Mangmoom common ticketing system by January 2017, some eight months ago, would likely face delays and would be implemented by the middle of 2017.
The "middle of 2017" was three months ago and from the words of Mr Rithika it seems this time around the delay is for another 15-18 months.
In what was supposed to be a year that millions of commuters in Bangkok would have been able to use the common ticketing system similar to those in other cities, the delay puts the whole system a step behind its peers in the region, be it Singapore or Hong Kong.
In the typical style of the MRTA, the delays can be expected. But one needs to remind this agency that by the time they come out with the functional cards in 2019, the world may have gone way beyond cards.
In this day and age of fast-changing technology for transactions, sooner rather than later the use of cards is going to be similar to what is happening with the use of cash these days. Cash, which has been the medium of transactions for centuries, has started to lose its charm to plastic and these plastic cards are starting to lose their charm with the likes of QR codes and other technological innovations.
China's Alipay and other companies are making people using cash for transactions look like they were from the age when dinosaurs roamed the planet, and here the MRTA is unable to get the very basic use of plastic right.
With so many commuters and customers now using Samsung Pay to undertake transactions, the likelihood is that by 2019 when and if the MRTA's system is up and running, it could be obsolete and once again the government would end up wasting taxpayers' money.
Systems such as those that the MRTA is looking to implement have been in place for the past two decades in places such as Hong Kong, where the Octopus Card has been functional since 1997.
To make matters worse, the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning has already produced 200,000 of these Mangmoom cards.
What the authorities need to look into is how best to use the newer technologies that are available in the market to tap the maximum number of customers.
They need to look at the big picture. For example, technology use should not be confined to just Mangmoom cards when it comes to payment for public transport. Possibly, the transport authorities should rather come up with a Mangmoom application that could be used by both commuters of the rail service and users of expressway tolls who will not have to create a traffic jam while waiting to pay the toll.
A more holistic way of thinking would benefit commuters and also makes transport authorities better head towards the so-called "Thailand 4.0" approach.
But the MRTA seems to still struggle to accomplish the very basic task of running the common ticketing system.
