Electronic toll collection system malfunctioned again in Izmir

The electronic toll collection system broke down again in İzmir: The crisis in public transportation broke out once again in İzmir last June. Those who could not load their Izmirim Card as a result of the breakdown of the electronic toll collection system traveled for free.
Following the crisis in the Izmir urban public transportation system on June 1, 2015, the electronic toll collection system operated by Kartek had a malfunction yesterday. Electronic cards could not be loaded at bus, subway, ferry and İZBAN stations due to the malfunction. Long queues were formed in front of the automatic balance loading machines at the toll booths and stations. As this is the case, citizens who could not load their cards benefited from public transportation free of charge, as it was in June. İzmir Metropolitan Municipality officials stated that the system failure was caused by the main server and it was tried to be fixed. Due to the system crisis experienced in June last year, the residents of Izmir used public transportation for a week and ten days free of charge, and as a result, approximately 15 million lira of public damage was incurred. İzmir Metropolitan Municipality filed a lawsuit against both the former operator of the system, Kent Kart Company, and the new contractor Kartek, in order to collect the public damage, and asked them to compensate the damage incurred due to free boarding. The fault occurred during the inclusion of the Torbalı Tepeköy line, which was put into service yesterday. The new line to be commissioned during the week was integrated into the electronic toll collection system, but the system failed yesterday at 05.25 yesterday before the first trip to Tepeköy. The failure in the main server was not limited to İZBAN, it also affected all public transportation vehicles included in the system. Efforts to fix the fault continued until Saturday afternoon. But the fault could not be fixed. As a result, citizens who did not have any balance in their Izmirim Cards had to use public transportation for free.
CARDS NOT READED
The most recent system crisis occurred in June last year. Kent Card Company, which has been operating the electronic fare collection system in Izmir since 1999 in Izmir, lost the tender held by the General Directorate of ESHOT last year. Kartek firm took the new tender. On the morning of June 1, there was a crisis in the boarding of public transportation vehicles and card filling points. While the valleys of the public transportation vehicles did not read the cards, the cards whose balance had run out could not be refilled. As a result, residents of İzmir benefitted from public transportation free of charge until the system was activated. There was a public loss of approximately 15 million lira in ESHOT, İZDENİZ, METRO A.Ş and İZBAN due to free boarding.