Vol. 563 No. 4
515 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Transport the measures the Railway Procurement Agency has established to facilitate an integrated ticket system in view of the ?1 million received from the European Union to facilitate same. [7815/03]
The Railway Procurement Agency has been given statutory responsibility for the implementation of an integrated ticketing system based on smartcard technologies for initial deployment in the greater Dublin area. The RPA have set a target date of end 2005 for completion of this project. They are, however, examining all options to expedite the delivery of integrated ticketing with a view to bringing forward the proposed launch date.
The development costs of the full integrating ticketing project are estimated to amount to €26.9 million for the total project. In the 2003 Estimates for my Department, €3.6 million has been earmarked for integrated ticketing. This has enabled the RPA to proceed to the current phase which will deal with the design and procurement options for the system, including consideration of the potential for procuring the system on a public private partnership basis. The procurement strategy decided upon will determine the appropriate involvement of the private sector and estimated Exchequer financial support for the whole project. I am unaware of the €1 million referred to by the Deputy as there is no such funding in the current programme.
