Tcard

Tcard

Tcard was an integrated inter-modal stored-value ticketing project, similar to Hong Kong's Octopus Card system, originally intended to be in place before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The project experienced many delays even before the contract was signed, due to a lawsuit brought by the losing bidder Cubic Transportation Systems against the NSW Government. In 2002, when Justice Michael Adams threw out the suit, he described Cubic as guilty of reprehensible conduct and that they had shown a lack of good faith and positive dishonesty in the tender process.

After further acrimony and lawsuits with the developer ERG, in 2007 the state government terminated the project and the $64m invested in it has been written off. ERG and the independent regulator attributed some of the delays to CityRail's complex fare structure.

On 12 April 2010, the NSW Government announced that a new contract had been awarded to the Pearl Consortium for the roll-out of a simplified system. It was announced in September 2011 that the new system would be called Opal.