A costly smart card system to help residents of Reykjavik pay for city services such as bus fares and trips to the swimming pool may now not be used at all.
The idea to use a credit card system for public services was adopted by the Reykjavik City Council in 2002. The company behind the system, Smart Cards, agreed to develop the system, but whilst the city council and Straeto bus network have been busy paying for salaries, equipment and other implementation costs, it seems unlikely that they will be able to see a return for their investment after Smart Cards recently declared itself bankrupt.
Straeto’s managing director told Frettabladid that, “Straetó is not supposed to be responsible for developing or operating such equipment. If we can’t reach an agreement with private parties who see business opportunities in this, we’ll discard the system.”
Reykjavik City was also looking into the possibility of using the smart cards to provide free public transportation to high school and university students but with the problems and delays currently experienced with the program, the idea may be too expensive to implement.
As Thorbjörg Helga Vigfúsdóttir, the city’s representative on the board of Straetó, pointed out, the system has already cost the residents of Reykjavik a great deal.
I am the Managing Director of the English company that actually provided the system you see on the buses today, and the system that is/was supposed to be installed at ITR. The bus and ITR systems we provided are able (and do) run independently of the part of the system provided by Smartkort hf.
There is, in our opinion, no reason to cancel the project because Smartkort hf is bankrupt. We have offered on several occassions to the City of Reykjavik to provide operations for the systen, and with our Danish partners, are well placed to do so. However, no-one at City of Reykjavik seems to wish to entertain this discussion, citing only the ridiculously high operating costs proposed by SPRON/Curron (formerly Smartkort). We can only conclude that there are as yet unknown political reasons for the cancellation of the S-Kort scheme, but, as we have advised City of Reykjavik, we stand ready to assist as required.
Nick Male
Managing Director
Smart Transit Ltd