Halifax Transit’s tap-to-pay upgrades delayed by 3 months

The delay comes after municipal staff informed Halifax city councillors they cannot meet the initial deadline for the program rollout.

Halifax Transit users will have to wait an extra three month before they’ll see tap-to-pay options for fares. The delay comes after municipal staff informed councillors they cannot meet the initial deadline for the program rollout. For Coun.

Tony Mancini, who represents District 6, it’s an “embarrassing” update. “This is a mess. Unbelievable.

It’s embarrassing,” he said during Tuesday’s council meeting. “We have cities all around the world that have tap-and-pay — as the mayor said, not new technology. But we continue to delay and delay and delay.”

During Halifax Regional Municipality’s spring budget deliberations, it was determined that the rollout of tap-to-pay, coupled with fare increases, would happen in mid-September. An adult ticket for the bus, access-a-bus and ferry will be going up by 25 cents to $3.25. But the changes are delayed until December and staff have recommended raising the fares in September without the tap-to-pay upgrade.

Get breaking National news That’s a suggestion Mayor Andy Fillmore took issue with. “The council during budget deliberations made a deal with transit users and that deal was we’ll raise the transit fare and in exchange, we’ll provide an enhanced service,” he told reporters after the meeting. Fillmore proposed amending the motion — requesting fares only increase when transit payment services are upgraded in December.

He also proposed a supplemental report to solve the budget gap of $288,000 caused by delaying fare increases. “I don’t want to prejudge that, but Halifax Transit has a significantly large budget and to find $280,000 in it, I would like to see them try to do that and I’m hoping that’s what the staff report will illuminate, but we’ll have to wait and see,” he said. - Jeffrey Rath fought for First Nations.

Now former clients are fighting him - Toronto firefighters report longer travel times navigating gridlock and increased calls - Five years after Kelowna crane collapse, families still waiting for answers and charges - Hamilton is on the verge of a data centre moratorium vote. Others are taking notice. Halifax Transit’s executive director, Robin Gerus, took full responsibility for the holdup.

“I make promises based on the information I got (and) thought we could live up to it (but then I) find out that, ‘Oh no, we have another vendor that has to be involved with this.’ And there’s timelines that were out of our control that we have to move forward,” said Gerus. Many on council agreed with the mayor’s motion but cautioned against the outrage.

“I think the main thing we need to focus on is getting this done, getting it implemented, ensuring it’s secure, reliable, and these are experience at the end of the day will be a positive one,” said Deputy Mayor Patty Cuttell. The mayor’s amended motion passed unanimously.