By Alison Kennelly, AJ Benedictos, Ben Devlin, Maddie Smith, Phoebe Allan and Theresa Joseph
The rollout of MyWay+ has been contentious, to say the least.
Even the ACT government confessed they should have waited at least a week before launching the error-ridden system.
But in order to find solutions to restore Canberra’s public transport system back to glory, one must first investigate the roots of the problem — which is exactly what we did.
The Big Players
While the ACT Government had been envisioning a refresh for Canberra’s public transport system since 2016, they needed to find the right contractor to turn their dreams into a reality. That’s when NEC showed up.
Nippon Electric Company (NEC) is a global electronics and IT company based in Japan. Their Australian branch has been operating for over 54 years.
NEC’s transport sector is primarily focused on real-time passenger information and ticketing. They have a long history in the transport field, implementing smart transport systems in a variety of countries such as India, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Japan.
In February 2023, ACT Transport Minister Chris Steel announced that “following an extensive market sounding and procurement process,” the government had signed a contract with NEC Australia to deliver the new MyWay+ system.
Amy Jelacic, Chair of the Public Transport Association of Canberra, was critical of the government’s initial choice to work with NEC: “It seemed that Transport Canberra let themselves be captured by NEC who were offering them a […] high-tech type of system that had a lot of features that just haven’t been particularly well received here.”
Following the signing, NEC had 12 months to plan and design a bespoke product for Canberra. After that, their solutions were set to be immediately implemented.
Fast forward 27 November 2024: the chaotic and unsuccessful launch day of MyWay+. QR codes were failing to scan, real-time information was unavailable, and the ACT Government was bombarded with complaints.
According to NEC’s submission into the inquiry of MyWay+’s rollout, their company was not solely to blame. NEC had advocated for a 20-month gradual transition, with MyWay+ hardware being installed while regular MyWay services continued.
Transport Canberra, however, overruled this decision, stating it would create too much confusion for the public. This led to many errors and technical malfunctions, some of which are still continuing to date.
A key issue with the rollout of MyWay+ has been accessibility. NEC repeatedly recommended that Transport Canberra enlist Get Skilled Access, a disability inclusion consultant, in both December 2023 and August 2024. Although, both requests were unsupported by Transport Canberra.
MyWay+’s project director, Mark White, stated “At that stage we had not contemplated the requirement for it … [in hindsight] that was a missed opportunity and I acknowledge I certainly missed that opportunity.”
It appears the relationship between Transport Canberra and NEC has been rocky at times. With both parties disagreeing on multiple aspects of MyWay+’s rollout, it is hard to determine who is at fault for MyWay+’s flop.
Regardless, with the conclusion date for MyWay+ still undetermined, Transport Canberra and NEC will have to put their differences aside and team up to support the nation’s capital.
Lack of accessibility consideration
As part of their submission to the inquiry, the Council on the Ageing (COTA) highlighted “significant challenges” faced by older passengers during the rollout.
A major theme from COTA was the lack of consistent and accessible information. Transport Canberra reportedly failed to deliver proper training to drivers and staff, often resulting in misinformation, including about the valid use of Seniors Cards.
Following the inquiry, Transport Canberra extended the cutoff for using Seniors Cards on buses to the 31st of August.
COTA also noted a lack of service capacity at Transport Canberra. Difficulty receiving timely, accurate assistance ultimately meant a tenfold increase in calls to COTA, at “significant cost” and disruption to the organisation.
A further omission of hard-copy resources meant that COTA were heavily relied upon by Transport Canberra to provide information to older users, despite being under-funded.
Victoria Wells and Bill Gemmell are older public transport users as well as members of The Public Transport Association of Canberra (PTCBR). Both had negative experiences of the MyWay+ rollout.
Victoria, who uses an app to catch public transport, explained that she currently uses a third party app instead of the one made for Transport Canberra. “I think the MyWay app is not great, it’s not intuitive. There are a couple of other third party apps which are a lot better,” she says.
“I’m running a one woman campaign to get information in the information centre.”
Bill explains that the MyWay+ rollout has made Canberra’s system more confusing than in other cities. “My partner will not get a bus now unless I’m there with her. […] she’ll travel on buses in Sydney using her Opal card […] but here, it’s so confusing.”
He’s also had experience working on IT system rollouts in the past, and doesn’t rate this one highly. “They barely, barely got a 5, a pass mark, 5 out of 10. They’ve done nothing to address the latent concerns that are in the community.”
There has also been much criticism about non-compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). Andrew Braddock, the ACT Green’s Spokesperson for Transport has been vocal about such issues, describing it as “extremely disappointing.”
In its inquiry submission, CANAXESS, a digital accessibility company, reported “significant accessibility defects” present in the MyWay+ website. They explicitly observed non-compliance with the DDA and explained that it “effectively shuts out” users with disability from using the site.
Independent MLA Thomas Emerson has also criticised the system’s issues with accessibility, arguing that it breaches government principles outlined in the ACT disability strategy.
Speaking during the inquiry, Chris Steel, ACT Minister for Transport, expressed that Transport Canberra were unaware of some accessibility issues before rollout began. “Transport Canberra was first made aware of the MyWay+ Customer Portal being partially compliant […] on 29 January 2025.”
Current efforts by NEC to fix accessibility issues include engagement with Get Skilled Access, an accessibility consultancy group, to complete a review of the system.
Chris Steel maintains that the government has not breached the DDA. “The Territory does not accept the premise […] that there has been non-compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act.”
While the contract with NEC states that it has duties to deliver a system that is compliant with anti-discrimination laws, Steel further states that compliance with all contract requirements is only mandatory upon the “full operational state”.
In July, Transport Canberra announced several fixes to improve accessibility. This included changes to the customer portal and app and adjustments to onboard information displays and audio announcements.
Poor communication
The public communication surrounding the introduction of MyWay+ was found to be ineffective and misleading, according to various submissions made during the MyWay+ inquiry.
These submissions highlighted a few key issues with the transition period communication:
- In a submission from Ian Robertson, the lack of direct communication with those registered with MyWay+ was raised. “I am a registered MyWay user; you have my name and contact details, yet I have received no advice…”
- In another submission from Mark Dando, a public communications professional, the complex nature of Transport Canberra’s communications were discussed. He suggests that public communication should have focused on the most popular and user-friendly methods of public transport payment, such as tapping on and off with a debit or credit card. The focus on more niche options (such as the QR code) in mainstream communication made the entire channel of public communication congested and confusing.
- The Belconnen Community Council’s submission emphasised the lack of clear, regular communication with the public during the launch of MyWay+ and the issues that followed — the public had to piece together information from scattered sources. The partial false advertising was also discussed, as the real-time tracking feature, which was featured in Transport Canberra’s marketing, was not available at the time of the launch.
Some helpful communication was still produced surrounding the launch of MyWay+, such as a few media releases and Facebook posts.
These sources contained some useful, practical information for the public such as key changes and new features, but the distribution of this information was limited by the platforms on which it was released.
Not all potential passengers, especially children and seniors, would regularly access Facebook, and the general public don’t make regular contact with Government media releases.
Security breaches
Throughout the rollout, there were multiple instances of data mishandling.
These breaches included personal information such as names, credit card numbers, and addresses.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Chris Steel, stated throughout the inquiry there were two incidents that occurred in April 2025, where 350+ users had been subject to a data breach.
Submissions presented to the inquiry present further evidence of cyber security threats to the release of the MyWay+ system.
The final verdict
With issues ranging from accessibility to security, the rollout of MyWay+ was far from perfect. Despite the hefty $64 million price tag that accompanied the transition, it seems the segue from old to new was bumpy at best. Canberrans continue to grapple with this new system.