I wasn’t around Kamco/Myki/NTT/PTV/VRT in the early days of ticketing system implementation but I worked with many that were. They pretty much all said everything was rushed and contract meant that every little change was a cost variation. All the subcontractors loved this because they got paid a lot to often stand around doing nothing.

Think the meme of 10 council workers watching 1 guy do the work. The company A would only do X, company B would only do Y, etc. Internal resistance from management and workforces of Hillside/Connex & VRT also hampered progress.

My first hand knowledge was an extremely wasteful system where a single broken Myki reader could require technicians from 5+ businesses to come out at a cost to PTV of 10’s of thousands each time. I saw the remnants of the Myki infrastructure installed at every station in the state, they would have scheduled maintenance even though there wasn’t a ticket machine. In some cases the stations were permanently closed. Felt very much like Guido Hatzis plumbing was in charge.