A couple of days ago Josh did a post about the announcement from Snapper that their “integrated ticketing” system would be installed on all the buses in Auckland belonging to NZ Bus, I have a different take.
It is obvious from the actions of Infratil and its subsidiaries, Snapper and NZ Bus this year that this group of companies has absolutely no interest in improving Auckland’s transport or even being a good a “corporate citizen”, no interest even in growing their long term receipts from increased public transport ridership, rather they are consumed with increasing their short term profits and getting a “larger piece of the existing pie” rather than “making a bigger pie”. Lets have a look at the actions of these companies since the 2008 election:
– Within months of the election an announcement the PTMA was be reformed with the removal of the regional authorities’ ability to control commercial routes, Infratil’s campaign contributions (read bribes) paying off. Hard to blame Infratil for seeking this amendment but easy to be annoyed about money’s ability to corrupt (a very accurate word) the best interests of the Auckland public.
– The bus lockout, NZ Bus was happy to hold the whole city to ransom because the companies drivers had the audacity to issue notice of an industrial action to “work to rule”, really audicous wanting to work to the rules of your contract, not to mention the company came out smelling dirty.
– The most recent development, Snapper announcing they would be installing their system on all NZ Bus buses.
Do they?
Now there are many reasons why the Thales system will be superior to Snapper (if you’re interested the CEO of Snapper and I got into a debate about Snapper’s merits, or lack thereof, here. But focusing on the recent announcement of the Snapper system being installed on NZ Bus buses, it shows a real desperation on the part of Snapper and brings up some interesting points:
– What does Infratil know that we don’t? We know the PTMA is going to be amended but NZ Bus/Snapper is about to outlay a lot of cash to install the Snapper system, seems very risky to me if ARTA can than force them to pull them out in a year’s time if they cannot process the Thales card requirements, are there further changes to the PTMA other than the control of commercial routes?
– Is Infratil actively trying to annoy ARTA and the ARC? A few short months ago ARTA and the ARC were threatening to cancel the contracts of NZ Bus, now after having Snapper turned down twice they are trying to force it on ARTA. Friction can only result.
– Is Infratil ready to risk the potential windfall profits of NZ Bus due to massively increased public transport usage which can only come from having a properly integrated system with all parties onside? If we meet ARTA’s 2016 public transport usage target of 100 million trips per year, over 80% of which will be by bus, an increase of 42 million passengers a year on bus to 80 million, is Infratil so dim they are prepared to put short term profits before long term windfall profits?
– Is Infratil ready for a battle with a superior card? If the Thales card and Snapper card can both use the Snapper in-bus technology then it will potentially become a two card battle which, with most likely no top up fees, Thales will win. All that outlay of installation costs for another cards gain.
Will these buses serve Infratil’s interests, Auckland’s or can they serve both?
All up this is a really stupid, frustrating move by Infratil/NZ Bus/Snapper. They are desperately exposing themselves to plenty of unneeded risk, they lost out on the tendering process twice (which delayed integrated ticketing 5 months but now, according to them, they are the only who can get us “integrated ticketing” by the RWC), they have really put ARTA and the ARC offside, are acting in a manner that is completely outside of the public interest and finally are going to cost themselves money over the long run.
The whole announcement is a shocker and I urge you to write a letter to the CEO of Infratil pointing out how this decision is a risky, expensive, profit killing one or urge everyone you know to boycott NZ Bus and take the train.
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Snapper had a full page advertisement in today’s herald….. interestingly.
what does RWC have to do with electronic or integrated ticketing? For tourists e-cards usually aren’t worth the effort. I know London is an exception with an excellent Oyster refund system, although i took a guy at a counter a good few minutes to explain all the options. What really made it worthwhile was the horrendous price differential between cash and Oyster fares, I believe it is 1.50 verse 4.00 pounds. I doubt Snapper would be ready for that sort of sophistication by 2011. A simple paper RWC ticket could do the job in Auckland for the duration of the cup, and the RWC is certainly not a good reason to stick AK with an inferior ticket system for many years later. Almost as silly as having random motorways ready for 2011.
I completely agree Luke, 60 odd games of rugby in 2 years time is causing our countries politicans to act like chickens with their heads cut off…
Yeah whether or not we have smart-card ticketing by the RWC probably isn’t that important. What is important is whether we have INTEGRATED ticketing though. And this announcement doesn’t really get us much closer to that (arguably, it could take us further away).
Anyone know how much time is left on the NZ Bus contract with ARTA? might be time to call for expressions of interest from the other bus providers interested in increasing their fleet of buses.
I simply see it as a corporate decision – they want to put the electronic ticketing system they use down in Wellington up in Auckland, and it has been used to highlight issues with drivers skimming money off the top. So yes, the reason is profits, but they wouldn’t be driving buses if they didn’t make money out of it.
As an aside, you might be able to use it later on as part of the integrated ticketing system or not, but if any other bus company was doing this – would it be an issue?
My guess is that Snapper have lost money so far in Wellington, and their whole business plan depended upon them getting the Auckland contract to make up for that. So when they didn’t get it, they freaked and have subsequently tried every trick in the book.
I think perhaps we are a bit harsh on Snapper because of their links with Infratil. But I think the conflict of interest concerns are legitimate.
I wonder about the rhetoric and enormous costs as proposed by ARTA for integrated ticketing in Auckland. As any bus user would see – NZ Bus, Ritchies, Eastern & Howick, Airbus and Pacific Tourways use Wayfarer ticketing machines. The only exception is Birkenhead who use fairly old ERG ticketing machines.
With some small changes, it is possible to implement integrated ticketing in Auckland in a matter of months for a fraction of the cost proposed by ARTA’s preferred supplier Thales. The staggering cost estimates and project risk and the controversy surrounding the project are a recipe for project failure, like what happened in Sydney.
Technically Snapper can inter-operate with Wayfarer systems (installed at other operators). So if NZ Bus indeed proceed to install Snapper gear on their buses instead of taking the less expensive option of upgrading their Wayfarer 3 equipment then an interesting conundrum will develop.
1. NZ Bus will approach their partners in the Auckland Integrated Ticketing Ltd – Company Number 1289029 (the company that issues the Day passes) and seek interoperability.
2. That will leave Birkenhead the only partner in ATSL free to take a decision whether to go with Snapper or with Wayfarer. (or wait for the French company Thales).
3. This will leave the train system out of the loop and open to Thales, but Veolia could just as easily adopt Wayfarer or Snapper unless pressured.
4. Fullers Ferries will not be an issue since Eastern & Howick own them and they are partners in Auckland Integrated Ticketing Ltd.
Having said all of the above, I am bemused by Infratil even approving the costs for the Snapper upgrade for the Auckland fleet. It would have been less costly for NZ Bus to have upgraded their existing Wayfarer machines.
But then there appear to be so many threads of political and economic agenda’s that the average person finds it all very confusing.
It is all very confusing and has taken ages to get the head around, a very important point is that Snapper is a sister company to NZ Bus…
So for Snapper to have the information of who, when and where people are using NZ Bus’ competition’s services is a HUGE conflict of interest…
It’s like one bank owning all the ATM machines and having their competitor’s customer’s information…
I always thought most of the cost for smart-card ticketing was in the computer “back office” system. Also, it seems to me as though the Snapper Card, London’s Oyster Card etc. are miles ahead of my Go Rider in terms of their technology.