This media release somehow passed us by last week, but is welcome confirmation that Thales will now provide the bus ticketing solution for all operators in Auckland – along with trains and ferries:
Auckland Transport said today, it was pleased to confirm Auckland’s bus consortium has advised its members will install Thales hardware on their bus fleets as part of the preparation towards Auckland’s integrated ticketing system.
The bus consortium comprises Ritchie’s, Howick and Eastern, Urban Express, Bayes and Birkenhead Transport.
Andrew Ritchie, Chief Executive of Ritchie’s, says, “The bus consortium previously chose Parkeon as its hardware supplier and they have proven themselves to be professional and responsive in their approach to the project. However, in the interests of a seamless approach we have now elected to move to the AT Thales solution which will also be used on trains and ferries”.
Auckland Transport’s Chief Operations Officer, Greg Edmonds, says, “While Auckland Transport is pleased with this decision, it is important to note it is in no way reflective of the ability of Parkeon to deliver the bus solution, more it is about using a single technological supplier to deliver a single solution. We are appreciative of Parkeon’s efforts to date.”
Mr Edmonds confirmed bus operators would commence rollout of the AT HOP system from April next year.
AT HOP goes live on Auckland’s trains on 28 October this year and on ferries on 30 November.
Hopefully by the middle of next year we’ll finally see this project completed.
What the flipping flip about NZ Bus?!!! Grrrrrrrr.
Pretty sure the whole “we’re kicking out Snapper and going with Thales” announcement the other week covers off NZ Bus.
I wonder what compensation Parkeon will get? I imagine they’ll be somewhat annoyed that they’ve lost their job.
Hazaah, the solution we were supposed to have in the first place.
If Parkeon haven’t manufactured the hardware yet they’ll probably be paid for their time and resourcing so far. That’s some consolation.
Yeah, only a couple of years later! If only Infratil/Snapper had accepted the original tender decision and a certain ex-transport minister hadn’t got involved we would already have that AT hop card on all buses, trains and ferries. Talking about billing and paying, the Auckland ratepayers and PT commuters should bill infratil/Snapper for the lost time we haven’t had an integrated card.
Hopefully that’d be good ammunition to go on a counter-suit, should Snapper carry out their threat to sue AT for financial losses.
No mention of NZ Bus at all. Thought that they were supposed to be ‘off the run’ according to Mr Creosote but hear they are still ‘operating’.
NZ Bus will be rolling it out as well after the rest of the bus companies have done so. They want to ensure that all the bugs are ironed out of the system before swapping over.
You mean bugs like slow card read times and weird stuff like “Transfer applied” showing and being said switching between any two buses, when there are no transfer discounts?
What about Tranzit, the Airbus Express and Waiheke Island buses? Or are they included but not specifically mentioned here? I also noticed that that Maxx website has been renamed to “AT Public Transport”.
If NZ Bus and Snapper were the company creating the big delays, then how come the other bus companies won’t have integrated ticketing rolled out by the original November deadline?