Prague opencard system collapses

Prague was unable Wednesday to provide travellers with its electronic transport opencard tickets after the failure in the system software. City authorities were expecting trouble from Thursday, a deadline in the ongoing wrangle between the original provider of the opencard software and services, the company eMoneyServices. The battle between the authorities and company has been taken to the courts. The electronic card was pushed through during the era of former mayor Pavel Bém at an estimated cost of 1.75 billion crowns. The city has been trying to reclaim the rights to the opencard software.