As most readers would know, the future Auckland integrated ticket was launched on Monday – the HOP card. The NZ Herald seems fairly enthused about the prospects for the card:
Auckland has been waiting many years for a public transport system with a transfer ticket. At last there is a sign of progress.
Auckland Transport, a body set up with the Super City, has adopted a debit card that will enable passengers to change buses with ease.
Its “hop card”, introduced by agreement with Infratil’s subsidiaries Snapper and NZ Bus, sounds like the Snapper card that the former Auckland Regional Transport Agency rejected in favour of a bid from a French provider, Thales.
Auckland has been waiting well over a year for the Thales contract to produce a transferable ticket and will continue to wait for the hop card to be extended to trains, ferries and buses not operated by NZ Bus. But at least that is the plan now.
I went along to the launch and now have myself a “HOP card”. There’s a little “Snapper” in the corner of the card, showing clearly that this is some sort of compromise between various parties involved: Snapper, Thales, NZ Bus, Auckland Transport and NZTA as the main (though not sole) funding provider. I asked a few people at the launch how this will all work – the compromise between Auckland Transport and Snapper. The answers were kind of mixed: one person said that this card is just a “rebranded Snapper Card”; another person disputed that vigorously.
My understanding is that basically, at this point in time, the purple card I have in my wallet with “HOP” written all over it is effectively a Snapper Card, but with different colours. If I put money on that card, the money will sit in a bank account that is run by Snapper, the 25 cents that I need to pay to top up the card will go to Snapper and any interest earned off that money will also go to Snapper. The machines that will be operating on North Star buses in the relatively near future, before being rolled out onto other NZ Bus operators “some time in the future” will effectively be Snapper machines. At this point of the process, it would seem as though the first person I talked to on Monday evening was right – this is a rebranded Snapper Card.
Some time before the Rugby World Cup, the Thales part of the project will kick into action – with the hardware for ferries and trains coming online. For the tournament itself, apparently we will have only a very limited functionality rail fare system operating with the new cards – something primarily aimed at visitors it would seem. This leads to the first of my questions:
- Once Thales have their machines up and operating on the rail and ferry network, will I be able to use the card I got on Monday night to pay for a train or ferry fare?
Of course, once Thales have their hardware up and running we find ourselves facing an interesting issue. Will all the ‘back-office’ stuff – the ‘clearing house’ the software behind the scenes, the bank account that everyone’s money sits in – remain with Snapper or will it be transfered to another agency, like Auckland Transport, Thales or NZTA? Which relates to my next unanswered question:
- Will we effectively have two ticketing systems operating ‘side-by-side’, that just happen to be interchangeable, or will we have one core system that handles all the transactions (operated by NZTA presumably), but a variety of cards and machines that can access that system?
The clearest explanation of how the system might work I have ever heard was from Snapper CEO Miki Szikszai, who suggested that the way EFTPOS works could be a useful comparison: you have multiple banks, multiple machine types – yet it all still works. I’m not sure whether that’s what Auckland Transport (and ARTA before them) have had in mind for this system though, and I’m not sure whether that kind of approach is in the best interests of the public transport system (which may benefit more from time-based, unlimited travel tickets rather than from a different version of e-Cash).
Another interesting aspect to the issue relates to the other bus companies. If I were Ritchies or Howick & Eastern or whoever, I’m not sure how comfortable I would feel being part of a ticketing system operated by a sister company of one of my main competitors, NZ Bus. This tends to suggest that, in the longer term, it seems likely that the system (all the back office stuff and where the money is kept) may be centralised, with the cards (either the ‘Snapper/HOP’ or the ‘Full Hop’) being able to tap into that system to work our your journey cost and shift the funds around to pay for it. That leads to my next question:
- When will the other bus companies in Auckland (Ritchies, Howick and Eastern, Birkenhead Transport and Urban Express) start accepting the HOP card? Will they accept the purple card I got on Monday night, and will all the same fare options be available to me?
In my blog post on the HOP launch, I lamented the fact that it seems we will not be shifting to a zoned based fares system, providing free transfers, for quite some time yet (if ever). As much of the reason for having integrated ticketing is to enable easier transfers between services – so we no longer have to provide an inefficient ‘everywhere to everywhere’ bus network – this is a huge disappointment. Which leads to my next question:
- Will we be shifting to a zone based fares system? If so, when will this happen and will the HOP card (including the one I got on Monday) be able to technically handle significant changes to the fare system in the future?
The final few questions I have are a bit all over the place, so I’ll simply put them together:
- When will a monthly pass option be available for use with the HOP card?
- Will I be able to top up the balance of my HOP card online without having to buy a stupid USB dongle thing – like one needs to top up their Snapper Card? With the London Oyster Card one can simply top up their Oyster account from the internet.
- Will the system, and the current cards, ensure we pay the best fare – by using features such as ‘fare capping’ at a daily rate?
- Will the system be able to have ‘automatic topups’ like is available with the Oyster Card in London?
I think my final question is perhaps the most obvious one of all:
- Why are all the parties being so incredibly opaque about this whole process? Why is it so hard for them to simply tell us what’s going on?
I’ll probably put this together into an email to send off to various senior staff at Auckland Transport (although most of them seem to read this blog so I have no problem if they wish to post the answers in the comments). If readers have further questions, feel free to add them in and I’ll do my best to get those questions answered.
So there is a surcharge every time you top up?
I ran into a guy I used to know who now works for Snapper. The (very frank) answers he gave me to a lot of the questions I asked suggested that it is just a rebranded Snapper card.
I asked when the other bus companies wuold come on board. He felt (and i have to agree) that the other bus companies would be very, very reluctant to come on board and use a Snapper system because this would mean that NZBus could more easily (i know they are not the same company but they’re both owned by the same company) access information about patronage on their routes, fares etc which would give them an advantage when bidding for council tenders. He suggested that we might actually end up with an impasse, like they have in Wellington, where some bus companies just refuse to use Snapper.
I said “so when will integrated ticketing be available on trains and ferries?”
He said, “No idea, but the launch was meant to happen in February and it got delayed till now – so that gives you an idea of how quickly things are moving.”
I’d love to hear some answers from anybody about this – but perhaps it’s such a mess nobody wants to discuss it?
LucyJH – in Wellington there are only four operators, Mana/Newlands (Porirua and points north along the coast), NZ Bus (everywhere else – there’s not much physical overlap), the harbour ferry, and then the trains. There are some joint products (bus+train, or both bus companies), but these are generally only monthly. There is ‘an after 9am’ day ticket, across all the operators. Snapper and Mana’s smartcard don’t talk to each other.
http://www.metlink.org.nz/assets/Home-Page/Publications/J0099WRCFares-Leafletweb.pdf
@ Ross Clark – “in Wellington there are only four operators, Mana/Newlands (Porirua and points north along the coast), NZ Bus (everywhere else – there’s not much physical overlap), the harbour ferry, and then the trains.” There are three more operators: Tranzit in the Wairarapa, Uzabus to Otaki, and Wellington City Council’s cable car. The latter is outside the Metlink system, unfortunately.
“There is ‘an after 9am’ day ticket, across all the operators.” It’s not valid on the ferries, Tranzit or Uzabus.
“Snapper and Mana’s smartcard don’t talk to each other.” Sadly true, but Mana’s is much less smart.
I had mentioned the eftpos analogy before and from memory after Snapper finally accepted that they lost the contract they changed to saying how they feel the system should be open to allow for competition which is obviously what they have won people over on. It sounds like there could be multiple kinds on Hop card from different providiers that all work together for PT but that they will compete on different features, in the case of Snapper it will be that you can use it at stores with Snapper terminals installed. I believe the CC companies have started trialing contactless credit/debit cards so that means is we might eventually see something like a Hop visa debit card.
“in the case of Snapper it will be that you can use it at stores with Snapper terminals installed”
And presumably use the same card in both Auckland and Wellington?
If these cards are intended to become micro payment cards (and presumably that is where the big money will be earned) then they can’t afford to be regional. An Auckland Card will be mostly used by Aucklanders and it is likely only Auckland shops will accept it since there wouldn’t be enough transactions to warrant accepting it elsewhere. That makes about as much sense as having different regionally based currency, or EFTPOS cards that are only accepted in a single city.
I believe that one of the main reasons Snapper/Infratil held up the tender process for so long by challenging it in court was that their business case was dependant on them getting the system in both Auckland and Wellington, when they didn’t get Auckland it put the whole thing at risk so they changed their strategy and started pushing for open standards so they could still roll out their technology. They were saying late last year/early this year that they might have to change all of their Wellington cards to be compatible with the national standards.
Yes you are right, it isn’t the PT market they really want but the micro payments.
There is a key problem with the eftpos analogy. With regular eftpos the buyer and seller are clearly defined. When I buy some groceries the money goes to the supermarket. With integrated fares this is not the case. Fare revenue will have to be shared between operators based on one formula or another.
This whole thing is very dissapointing.
I think the eftpos analogy is still correct, there is one overall standard but any bank can create a card using the set standard and it will work with all terminals regardless of who makes it because again they have to conform to a set standard. For the end user it doesn’t matter who has supplied the machine or what bank the retailer uses because they all work together.
The only real difference is that with eftpos the terminal gets in communication with the bank to confirm you have the money and then transfers that money to the retailer. in effect the card doesn’t do anything other than hold your information and if there is no internet connection the whole thing doesn’t work.
With this the balance is stored on the card itself and it is the card that does the processing. You have a balance on the card itself and when you use it/purchase something then that cost is taken out of your balance. All of the purchases (PT or otherwise) are then reconciled with your account on the master system and in the case of a bus where there isn’t a constant connection that information can be up stored and uploaded to the master system later on for reconciliation.
If we eventually get integrated fares with free transfers (like what was promised) then it will probably be a case that there is a reconciliation that will happen to transfer money to the correct parties which shouldn’t be to hard.
I am struggling to see how it all relates to this positive announcement we got in December:
http://transportblog.co.nz/2010/12/21/integrated-ticketing-project-update/
Some reporter should ring up Birkenhead Transport etc etc to see what they think about the whole thing.
Very good post admin,
The way I think its starting to look is that there will be two sets of cards, Snapper and HOP. There will be a core set of functions that will be common to both but some add on functions will be on just one card or the other.
That would be following the same as EFTPOS, I guess just like EFTPOS that will mean we will have two accounts snapper account and HOP account.
Whatever technology is ultimately used, it must be transparent to and deemed trustworthy by the users and it must not inflate the cost of a trip by penalising any required mode changes during that trip. All of this seems a tall ask in light of the issues around the current HOP card.
I haven’t used London’s Oyster card but I have made extensive use of the Octopus card in Hong Kong; seamless, cheap & very easy to use.
The eftpos analogy us interesting. Do people not remember that for several years we had two parallel and unintegrates eftpos systems?There was the westpac one and the BNZ lead one, and you couldn’t use one groups cards with the others terminals. For a while the biggest stores had two sets of terminals at the counter, but for mos places it was pure luck weather your card would work on the merchants machine.
I received some information from a man advertising Hop outside Britomart on Tuesday. He had been given a timetable for the rollout:
this week- advertise Hop
next week- distribute hop cards for free to go rider card holders at various locations
weeks 3&4- Go-rider machines replaced with hop machines on NZ bus services throughout Auckland, beginning first with Northstar
1st May – Go rider completely redundant throughout Auckland
31st May – cut-off date to exchange go-rider cards for free hop cards, and transfer any remaining balance
All seems pretty quick to me- hope they deliver on time! I did notice that a Northstar service I causght the other day had the readers installed at both doors- with a fabric cover over the machines.
All the Go West buses I have caught in the last two weeks have had the Snapper readers installed and covered like you saw.
Seeing how there are open standards for contactless smartcard transport ticketing – http://www.calypsonet-asso.org/ the limited roll out with vested Snapper interest, reinventing of the wheel, pissing money up the wall, still no transfer ticketing, Hop-card is a bitter disappointment.
A national integrated system should have been developed from the open standards and controlled by the NZ government and then rolled out nationwide on all operators. It could have been brilliant, but a Snapper Hop card is not.
As has already been mentioned on a number of the PT sites the HOP card you have in your hand is very likely to be
one of these
http://www.snapper.co.nz/newsroom/2010/12/16/made-in-new-zealand-is-a-real-plus/
It has visualised the “old snapper” standards that snapper’s wellington’s buses and the retail network use, as well as presumably having compatibility with the new NZTA standard Thales system.
So you from a technology POV you will be able to use it on the train and Ferry, as for the back office shenanigans, well that is a political decision by AT/NZTA, and given that there has been bugger communication since this $50 million project kicked off, I don’t think anyone will know how it is going to work until they put it into use- Typical
”Why are all the parties being so incredibly opaque about this whole process? Why is it so hard for them to simply tell us what’s going on?”
That’s my main concern.
It’s sounding like an unholy mess, and I fear snapper has absolutely hijacked Aucklands integrated ticket. I hope I’m wrong.
There has to be one ticket for everything, anything less will be a big disappointment.
I don’t mind if it takes a while to get it sorted, but the end result has to be ONE integrated ticket, with a revised fare structure.
What an incredibly frustrating process this is, that’s Auckland though I suppose.
Sitting on the bus this morning staring hard at the Snapper readers a question occurred to me. How do you stop people badging off early?
The exit reader is at the rear of the bus and out of sight from the driver. Whats to stop you badging off the stage before you actually get off? I can see quite a bit of revenue leakage that way.
Sb, there is nothing to stop people tagging off early except the possible threat of having a ticket inspection reveal it. It’s much the same as paying the driver for a two stage fare but going three.
If the reader supports it, it could make a sound whenever somebody tags off. Public shame can be quite effective.
… and that is exactly what the Wellington Snapper does. Watched it in action a couple of weeks ago, I was also struck by the fact that it was not all that fast in registering, and that it also shouted confusing instructions at people when their balance was low. Several people had to ask the driver what the device meant by the instruction, and therefore slowed down the boarding of the bus. Probably a one-off introduction phase issue, but perhaps another example of poorly though-through operations….
Like i said: ‘capture by interested parties’ This has a private sector good; public sector bad smell to the whole thing. Some one has forced a market model onto something that needs to be universal and not for capture by one company. Looks like someone’s made an ideological decision and now all sorts of twists and turns are required to try to make it look like real integrated ticketing. Won’t work. HOP will have to be free of Infratil’s grip to be universal. And to work it has to be universal.
Interesting comment from the Snapper site when asked about use of the Hop/Snapper card on other than NZ Bus
Thanks for all your questions about whether Snapper can be used on Auckland’s Public Transport.
I quote….
At this point, we’re not in a position to answer as we think the right thing to do is to have Auckland Transport announce their plans for Integrated Ticketing. We understand that will be happening soon and we’ll have to be patient and allow them to explain their policy position.
In the meantime our approach is to make sure that our equipment can read as many card types as possible. We think this is the best way to handle interoperability, much like the way EFTPOS works where terminals can handle a range of card types from different banks. It’s not that difficult to achieve this.
I can assure you that the Snapper card will not be obsolete soon – we’re working very closely with NZTA and the national standards process so can say this with confidence
Cheers
Mikiron.e.wilson
It sounds suspiciously like Infratil have forced Auckland Transport to cave in and accept Snapper. Refer the Rudman article on Infratil telling govt that if they did not get the Auckland Ticketing market they would look at dumping the Wellington Snapper operation as it was not big enough to warrant keeping on its own.
Easy answer just let the run Auckland and say Goodbye to Thale. Shades of Telecom and UFB
More info on Hop
http://www.aucklandtransport.govt.nz/improving-transport/current-projects/01IntegratedTravel/Pages/AucklandIntegratedTicketingSystem.aspx
Still no answer on why NZ Bus gets it and no one else. Ritchies have no sign of installing new readers
Absolutely no mention of integrated fares on there.
“Will I be able to top up the balance of my HOP card online without having to buy a stupid USB dongle thing – like one needs to top up their Snapper Card?”
From the link: “It works just like any other Snapper, and you can plug it into your computer’s USB port to check your balance and top up at any time with MySnapper.”
To me that implies that the dongle can be used to tag on and off buses AS WELL AS used with a computer. You don’t need a Snapper card AND a dongle. So it’s like a USB crypto key with an additional proximity chip or whatever is used for tagging built in. Can anyone confirm this?
I’m reading through the Snapper site and it is interesting innovative stuff. There is some overlap between what they’re doing and the software (and crypto hardware) my company develops. There are some concepts that I wish we’d thought up and it is nice to see it is all being built in NZ.
I’m impressed that the USB comes with Linux packages for .rpm and .deb. Also rather surprised. But it’s just so damned unnecessary, if they just setup a proper online topup system. Of course that’d then be one more level of control that they can’t exert, so I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked.
Me? Cynical? Never!
The dongle works as a form of 2 factor authentication. If 2FA becomes more commonplace then I think that is a good thing.
And thanks for the clarification about the two products Sb.
There are two USB systems. One which I think is called Snapper Feeder recharges a normal RFID Snapper card but cant be used as a Snapper in its own right. The other is the combined recharger/RFID Snapper system.
I’m really worried about the zonal fare system. If that’s not happening, PT in Auckland will never achieve its full potential. Not a snowball’s chance in Hades. For as long as there’s a transfer penalty, we’ll be left with shitty service quality, shitty routes, and a negative economic impact on shopping centres that exist along major transport routes as people elect not to jump off a bus/train to do a quick bit of shopping before continuing on their journey.
It might be easier not to do it, from a “How do we divvy up the moolah?” perspective, but it’s very definitely a typically NZ cheap, nasty, easiest-but-long-term-worst choice. I guess it’s too much to hope that BAU can change.
Trying to stay positive I’m hoping that the ‘open access’ part of Hop Card means that it will be able to be integrated in Snapper but also Visa Debit or Student ID cards or any other card that fits the bill.
This would mean that the current Hop Cards will work on any service where the compatible machines are installed, but other companies (opposition to Snapper) could announce their own versions of the Hop Card.
Maybe Large workplaces could get ID cards that double as Hop Cards, with companies giving $X a month to all employees?
What worries me is that there seems to be no way to check your card balance without going online. In Wellington for a period they were charging exorbitant fares by mistake. if you cannot tell easily how much has been deducted from the card it seems open to abuse.At the very least the system should display the balance when you swipe it like an eftpos system does. I get the impression that the dongle is so you can write/read your card.
The tag posts on buses have displays which show the amount deducted each time you tag, as well as showing your balance (I believe it only shows this when the balance is below $12, however)
I see you keep mentioning about how with Oyster in London you can top up online. Having recently been there, I thought it was important to clarify that :
- to validate your online top-up you need to pass through a Tube, DLR or
Overground station or tram stop (basically, a hard-wired card reader)
In other words, online top-up was of no use to you if you were a pure bus user (although you could setup an auto top-up, but you’d still need to pass through a hard-wired machine to activate it initially).
Although I agree it would be brilliant functionality, if London haven’t managed to do it with their buses I can’t see us managing to – at least, not in a hurry.
@SB
I think the driver will have a display in front of him, which will tell him when someone is tagging on and off and all the relevant information. If he’s alerted that someone is tagging off, then they sit back down in their seat, then I guess they will be caught. Might be a bit harder to police at peak times though if there are standing passengers, but a lot of people wouldn’t do it because other passengers would see them.
I think this is also the reason why they can’t have buses that accept both Go Rider & Hop/Snapper (temporarily) because the drivers console/computer (or whatever it’s called) needs to be changed from the ones currently in use and there certainly wouldn’t be room for two.
When there are only a couple of people on the bus that might work. But at rush hour if 6 people badge off at a fare stage and only 5 get off, then later 2 people badge out and 3 get off the driver will never detect that, and it is at rush hour that people will do this.
As for worrying about people telling on them, this is New Zealand right! Given that on the trains people clearly fare dodge and nobody says anything to the ticket collector I would not expect anybody to mention anything to the bus driver.
To my shame I have to say that my daughters travel by train because it is so easy to fare dodge, one managed a whole month of trips without ever paying a fare! (Yes we did have words when I found out)
At the moment drivers don’t check tickets as passengers get off the bus, so I don’t see that anything is worse than before.
I saw teams checking tickets a couple of times in several years of living in London. I’ve never been randomly checked anywhere else in the world, except I was checked twice in a week in Prague. Way to go Prague! At least one city has worked out that making people buy tickets is good for their transport system.
The other question I’d like to add to you list of questions is whether the money being held by Snapper is being held in Trust or not.
A la Whitcoulls and vouchers. If I top up my card with $50 and Snapper goes into receivership the next day do I stand in line with all the other unsecured creditors ?
I am praying the reason they have not changed the fare system AT ALL, is because they are waiting for the whole system to rolled out before they change it into a proper integrated fare structure. I think the other companies should be FORCED to comply, not given the option. If they don’t change, they lose their contracts when it comes up for renewal. Simple as that. They will undermine the whole thing if they don’t join. If they don’t like/want Snapper on their buses, then they go with Hop only.
*sigh*
1) The zonal system is not happening now. Why do some people think this means it will never happen?
2) The simple reason why Snapper will NOT be the entire Hop system is that the other bus companies wouldn’t wear it. So they will no doubt use non-Snapper Hop, just like the trains and ferries.
Because it hasn’t even been mentioned. Plus the optionality of adopting HOP means that introducing it would be a nightmare if there are service providers who don’t sign on. Waiting until 2014 when the next round of bus contracting happens is, effectively, “never”, because if it doesn’t happen with the roll-out there’s no impetus for it to happen at all.
In a way it makes sense that it’s not happening now (new fare structure) from day 1, cause the equipment isn’t fully rolled out yet on all modes so what would be the point?
I think another reason they are doing it this way is to ‘ease’ the public into it with the structure they’re used to and get them familiar with it, then gradually evolve it to a fully integrated zonal fare structure. At least this is what I’m hoping!
“The zonal system is not happening now. Why do some people think this means it will never happen?”
Because it is being put to the back of the project and will likely be dropped or put in the to hard basket. The various bus companies have already objected to things like free transfers because they are scared they might lose revenue even though the total transport market would grow as a result and likely more than make up for any loss.
There is also the issue that it can get pretty complicated when the card has to be able to handle hundreds of different fare products which is what we are heading for if we just replicate the status quo onto the card. This is why Sydneys implimentation failed.
Why don’t bus operators get paid a set amount of $ for each journey from AT, regardless of how many people travel on it. Then all the fares collected go straight to AT, and NOT to the bus operators. That way they wont care about transfers and/or how many people are travelling on their service if they are getting x amount of dollars each time.
They could do that, but AT is not some all powerful institution here. There are existing contracts, there are legal issues, political issues etc. I have no doubt integrated fares is possible but whether it actually happens is a whole other story.
This all goes back to Joyce, of course, as he killed the changes that Labour took too bloody long to introduce that would have given AT more power. Also Infratil et al have more chance with this gov. than any Auckland local body due to ideological bias. It is a mess and we have every right to be concerned about there being any real plans to get fare zones.
Anyhow in what way does this government show any real sign of being happy with growing PT numbers? They are always bragging how low they are. Growth of PT use is an embarrassment for their daft highway building plans.
Unfortunately any rational ordering of PT in AK will be impossible under Joyce as anything like Shaun’s structure above rewards AT for growing the market not Infratil or it’s fellow private operators. Like the city election that’s the wrong result for Steveo.
I don’t understand why the various bus companies will have objected to free transfers revenue loss. The northern pass allows for free transfers right?
Because the ‘smart card’ side of things is the sexy, easy bit, where as the real benefit is in the integrated fares. This is the hard bit because it involves commercial negotiations with operators whose revenue streams will be fundamentally effected by the change. This is going to be hard and you know people will go crying foul to Joyce at the first sign of AT getting tough (which they will have to be).
So far with hop/snapper, we see Auckland Transport not really in the driving seat, and actually infratil seems to be in the driving seat. That does not bode well.
In a way, a lot of it does come down to passenger honesty, and I do believe the overwhelming majority of people are usually honest. Sure, you do get the small minority who aren’t and will to try to their best to rort the system. No system in the world is perfect, and it’s near on impossible to police every single journey/passenger.
At rush hour now, you could pay for 1 stage and travel 2 and the chances of getting caught are slim but ‘most’ people still pay the correct fare.
I had an e-mail from the operations manager at Howick & Eastern (provide the majority of bus services in east Auckland) this morning, which said in reference to the Hop card “we do not have a definite date to roll out, but I do not believe it will happen before December 2011″.
So for the hundreds of thousands of commuters living in east Auckland, most of which is not served by a train line, the Hop card will be an irrelevance until it comes to the ferry services out of Half Moon Bay (and perhaps Pine Harbour) – this is mooted to happen in time for RWC but at this rate I’m not holding out much hope of that.
The roll out was always planed to be slow. It will be done that way to reduce risk. Howick and Eastern has one of the faster ticketing systems at moment, so it is logical to roll the system out to them later so they are exposed to less risk than say NZbus with its slow system.
The reality is implement new ticketing hardware across an entire public transport network is a huge undertaking and cannot be expected to happen overnight.
I do however hope that the rail part of the system will be fully operational by the world cup and the entire system (including any fare policy changes) be complete before “march madness” when uni goes back next year.
This is bad for South East Auckland.
@ Ross Clark – so isn’t that basically what I described? Some bus companies (Mana) in Wellington refuse to use Snapper so the area does not have a truly integrated (i.e., available on all services) card.
I have heard that the current HOP cards that are being rolled out will only work on NZ Buses and will only work on these buses until later this year. If I want a card that works on all buses, rail and ferry I have to get a new card later on. Is this true? I think I will throw this card in the bin and wait for the real one.