SmartRider - Implementation of The System

Implementation of The System

The implementation of SmartRider was originally planned for January 2005, but due to problems with implementation of reader technology, the key dates changed a number of times. SmartRiders became available to members of the public from 14 January 2007.

The SmartRider was rolled out progressively to different groups of customers:

• Trial Users: A small group of passengers travelling through Stirling Train Station participated in the initial trial in May 2004.
• Control Group: 2,000 passengers from key user groups were invited to test the system. Initially the Control Group trial was to last for 4 weeks, however participants were subsequently asked to continue using their cards until the full rollout (from 16 October 2005).
• Expanded Control Group: 5,000 more passengers joined the Control Group to test this system under load (from 23 January 2006).
• Seniors: New Western Australian Seniors' Cards were issued with integrated SmartRiders in May 2006.
• Secondary Students: Students were issued with ID cards with integrated SmartRiders in 2005. Secondary school students began using the system on 16 July 2006.
• Tertiary Students: Tertiary SmartRider became available for UWA students from 16 July 2006, and all full-time tertiary students from 4 November 2006.
• Primary Students: Students were issued with ID cards with integrated SmartRiders in 2005. Primary school students began using the system on 1 October 2006. The 50 cents Student MultiRiders were phased out afterwards.
• TravelEasy subscribers: The members of the TravelEasy online service were able to obtain the SmartRider card from 13 December 2006, before it was made available to the public.
• General Public: Smartriders were made available to the entire population when the MultiRider system was phased out and subsequently withdrawn from use on 8 April 2007.
• Car Parking: From 22 October to 4 November 2007, new Pay'n'Display machines were trialled at the Stirling Interchange car park so that SmartRider users can pay for their parking with their SmartRider This facility has since been extended to 13 other stations on the network.
• TransGeraldton: SmartRider was introduced on TransGeraldton bus services in March 2009.
• TransBusselton: SmartRider was introduced on TransBusselton bus services on 21 December 2009.

For much of the Control Group testing, Transperth offered full or partial fare refunds to prevent software problems causing overcharging.