Halifax’s new transit app, designed to streamline bus and ferry ticket purchases, launched back in November 2023 after lengthy delays. Now, according to documents, we have insight into why the app took so long to come to life.
Halifax council approved the search for an electronic fare system provider in July 2020 and eventually U.K.-based company Masabi, was awarded the contract in July 2022 and provided a budget of $1.6 million, reports CBC News.
“Our goal is to get this in place as quick as possible. Realistically, I think it’ll be at least a couple of months, but we will push as quick as we can,” said Marc Santilli, Halifax Transit’s manager of technical services, at the time.
However, the timeline eventually extended, with contract finalizations between Halifax and Masabi not completed until April 2023. In July, Masabi said it would take four months to debut the app. But this timeline caused Halifax Transit executive director Dave Reage to call for an “urgent meeting” with the developer.
On July 27, city staff met with Masabi and work began for an October 9 launch. But in Early August, Halifax staff failed to give Masabi technical data it needed, missing an August 8 deadline.
On August 23, Masabi told Halifax that there was an official delay to now October 23, since staff missed the deadline.
CBC News says Reage eventually appeared before the Halifax transportation standing committee one day later, but did not mention how staff failed to meet a deadline, despite saying a launch in the fall was coming.
The app, HFXGO, has now been downloaded over 40,000 times since its debut on November 2, has seen an 83% satisfaction rate among users, according to spokesperson Brynn Budden. “We’re seeing the benefits of that quality now, with thousands of people using the app on a daily basis with minimal issues,” Budden explained.
Criticism of the HFXGO app notes the lack of Apple Pay and Google Wallet app integration for mobile payments, for example. Also, credit card and debit payments are limited to Visa and Mastercard, as American Express is not supported. “We’ve been waiting for so long for Halifax’s public transportation to modernize, and we get this hot garbage of an app?”, said one App Store review back in November. Ouch.
The second phase of the project, involving the installation of on-board validators for app scanning, is underway, with completion expected by the middle of this month.
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Thousands of cities around the world have transit systems which work approximately the same way. They have fares, modes of transport and methods of payment. It should not require a specialized package for each city. A common platform with some customizations is all that should be required. On cannot help but wonder if there is an effort to overly complicate things here. Especially in this day and age, when there are already several platforms in use, it boggles the mind.
Governments rarely do anything well. And yet somehow, there are still those that think we need more and more government and more centralized government. Just more opportunity for them to make things sht.