Our dreams of a slimmer wallet by the end of the summer have been dashed since it’s been announced that the all-in-one transportation card, Mangmoom (spider), won’t be ready by August, as the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTTPP) had promised.
The proposed card is meant to be used on the BTS, MRT, Airport Rail Link and forthcoming Blue and Purple lines. The Ministry of Transport said that Mangmoom cards will also work on highway and bus systems.
However, the OTTPP announced yesterday that, far from offering 2,000 trial cards soon, as they said just a few weeks ago, now the card won’t be available at all this year.
“What isn’t finished yet are discussions of how to adjust the systems of those four train lines to be connected into a shared system. It’s very complicated,” said the office’s acting director Padet Praditphet.
Well, duh. Yes, that’s the work you need to do to create such a card.
Padet was honest enough to say he has no idea when they’ll fix those issues. If, and when, they do, we’ll have to wait another six to seven months for the card readers and infrastructure to be put into place, according to Khaosod English.
Apparently, a new public-private partnership is necessary for card management. Padet said it’s still not clear which government agency is responsible.
It sounds like these guys should have done a bit more work before making such lofty delivery promises. This spider might come back to bite them.
Related:
First look at Mangmoom Card, only all-in-one public transport card you’ll need
Common ticketing system for BTS and MRT will be called Spider Card
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