Prague may again introduce paper coupons for public transport, the city management has decided
Paper coupons can be returned to Prague’s public transport. The Prague councilors, who are trying to solve long-term opencard problems, have decided to do so. Coupons could be issued from March if the metropolis runs out of opencard licenses. The opposition sharply criticizes the decision. Paper coupons take Prague back ten years, he claims.
Mayor Adriana Krnáčová (YES) she said last weekthat the city, with the possible introduction of paper coupons, wants to avoid a situation where it would have to buy new licenses under time pressure. The city has now purchased 1.27 million, but has already exhausted 1,265,271 licenses.
Prague has also approved a period after which the license for unused opencards can be unblocked and reused. According to spokesman Jiří Štábel, the Transport Company (DPP) will not have any problems with issuing coupons.
According to the document, the transport company (DPP) and the regional transport organizer Ropid have already been informed about the introduction of the coupons. They have to prepare a technological support and information campaign. The material admits that if DPP and Ropid could do it faster, the coupons could be printed before March.
Reprinting will not be a problem, says DPP
According to a staff spokesman, the DPP will have no problem introducing coupons. “The issuance of paper coupons currently works smoothly for students and also for the zonal operation of Prague’s integrated transport. Therefore, today’s decision does not represent a significant complication for DPP, “he said. According to Štábl, representatives of DPP, Ropid and the city will discuss specific tasks and a schedule for further action. The reprint of coupons costs the company 2.4 million crowns a year.
However, Martin Opatrný, a spokesman for the company eMoneyServices (EMS), which owns the opencard, said on Friday that it is not possible to guarantee the possible concurrence of both systems without an agreement with EMS.
Due to the need for new licenses, Prague has also shortened the period after which it can unblock and reuse licenses for lost or stolen opencards – there are now about 70,000 unused cards. The deadline will be shortened from three to two months. The city will also cancel the automatic card extension by two years.
Going back ten years, the opposition responds
Opposition representatives criticize the return to coupons. “The current leadership is taking Prague back ten years. I do not understand how it is possible that the new one does not have a competent councilor who would give IT and opencard priority, and instead leaves her in charge of opposition representatives from the Czech Pirate Party, who are IT experts probably because they like to download films illegally, “Said the chairman of the Prague ODS and deputy Filip Humplík.
Adriana Krnáčová announces a return to paper public transport coupons. When will we see a return to the horse, gas lighting and steam cleaner?
– Filip Humplík (@filiphumplik) January 23, 2015
The situation around the opencard project, which cost Prague at least 1.35 billion crowns, has been resolved without any results by several political representations. After the October elections, the mayor herself claimed that she would present a solution to the situation by Christmas. However, the coalition has not yet submitted any.
About 1.2 million passengers have so far picked up the opencard, which serves primarily as a tram ticket. Ten past councilors for TOP 09 and ODS and five officials face charges over the project. The dispute between Prague and EMS is being resolved by a court.
Selection of major events around the opencard |
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October 2005 – The city council approved an information strategy, the main part of which was the project of chip cards for paying for public transport, in libraries, parking and the like. |
April 12, 2007 – The municipality has started issuing opencards. However, mass interest in them came only after it became the only way to have a regular annual public transport coupon since January 2009. |
November 24, 2009 – The audit showed that the cost of the card did not correspond to the state of the project, which also had no revenue. The responsibility was borne by the city management, the municipal department of informatics, the Transport Company of the Capital City of Prague and the suppliers. |
December 22, 2009 – The second audit confirmed the reservations of previous controls; identified the dependence on Haguess, the owner of the rights to the system, as the main risk. |
February 12, 2010 – The municipality signed an addendum to the agreement with Haguess, on the basis of which the company was to secure another 260,000 cards. Haguess also agreed that the receivables claimed by the city against 50 million crowns. |
February 26, 2010 – Police have begun investigating the opencard project. |
February 1, 2011 – Prague took over the management of opencard, in February it decided that Haguess would buy 300,000 new licenses. |
April 3, 2012 – Prague has agreed with Haguess to extend the validity of the opencard. Without it, about 300,000 cards would expire during 2012. |
March 26, 2013 – The police accused ten Prague councilors about opencard, later the number of accused increased to 15. The statement of the politicians’ case ended last March, and in April 2014 the councilors proposed to indict. |
March 19, 2014 – The municipal company Operátor was established, which was to obtain an opencard license from eMoneyServices (EMS), which acquired the rights in early 2014. |
May 23, 2014 – Prague rejected the offer of the company EMS, which asked for 500 million crowns for a license for the opencard card. The city has decided to launch an open tender. |
June 9, 2014 – Mayor Tomáš Hudeček said that the city withdrew from the proposal to start issuing paper coupons instead of opencard from July. The municipality has been discussing this possibility since May. |
June 12, 2014 – Prague announced that after June 16, when the contract for the service of the opencard system with the company EMS expired, it will provide service of the system on its own. |
June 20, 2014 – The Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against 15 people in the opencard case, among them expressors Bohuslav Svoboda (ODS) and Tomáš Hudeček (TOP 09). In December, however, the Prague City Court returned the case to the plaintiffs for further investigation. |
July 3, 2014 – EMS filed a lawsuit against Prague, after which it demands payment of a debt of approximately 40 million crowns. The second lawsuit is aimed at a transport company due to debts of approximately 30 million crowns. |
July 29, 2014 – Prague councilors approved the possibility that the dispute with the EMS will be resolved at the arbitral tribunal. The agreement was adopted by the old council on 11 November. |
November 28, 2014 – The new Prague Council repealed the arbitration resolution. At the beginning of December, the Prague City Court began dealing with the EMS lawsuit. |
December 17, 2014 – The High Court in Prague has convicted former municipal officials accused in 2011 of opencard. Ivan Seyček, former director of the IT department, heard the most severe sentence, 3.5 years unconditionally, in favor of Haguess. EMS has agreed with the new management of the municipality that it will continue to provide card service for the time being. |
January 8, 2015 – Prague listened to the EMS offer regarding the further development of the project. After the meeting, Mayor Adriana Krnáčová (YES) told reporters that the details were not public. |
January 23, 2015 – According to the material that should be discussed by the capital city council on Tuesday, Prague is considering reintroducing paper coupons for public transport from March. Opencards should remain with them at the same time. Prague has a license for 1.27 million opencards and does not intend to buy more due to problematic contracts from the past. At the same time, about 400 new users apply for the card every month, and licenses are rapidly declining. |