Well it seems like the rumours were correct – Auckland’s equivalent of London’s Oyster Card and Hong Kong’s Octopus Card is going to be called the “Hop Card”. The NZ Herald ran this story today:
London has its Oyster public transport card, Hong Kong an Octopus and Wellingtonians their Snapper, but Aucklanders will be hopping on to dry land with their new ticket to ride.
Auckland Transport is calling a new electronic ticket for seamless travel on buses, trains and ferries the Hop Card, and has approved a $1 million budget to publicise it.
I first read about the name being “Hop” on the Campaign for Better Transport Forum a few weeks ago, as I noted in this blog post. Herald writer Mathew Dearnaley obviously also keeps an eye on the CBT forums:
Earlier information about the name leaked to the Campaign for Better Transport’s website drew comments such as “underwhelming and lame” and “bit naff, really”. One wag said it may be “for one-legged folks”.
Bus passengers at Britomart were more complimentary, with 11 endorsing the name and only one saying it should have more of a Kiwi flavour.
Richard Benson said it had “a good beat to it” and Rick Schultz agreed it was catchy, although his main concern was that the card would make it easier to use public transport.
Is Mr Schultz worried about more people using public transport as a result of the card, or interested in that happening? I wonder. Ironically, apparently ‘Beat Card’ was one of the name options looked at, along with ‘Lime Card’. I suppose out of the three, Hop is definitely the least bad.
But it’s still a somewhat underwhelming name in my opinion. I think it’s a shame to not continue the nautical theme of overseas smart-cards – particularly when Auckland is such a nautical city. Something like the “Mako Card” could have been good – with the bonus that Mako (Maori for shark) eat Snapper 🙂
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I don’t think the name will make any difference. Hop is fine, it’s simple that’s the main thing.In fact to me Hop makes a lot more sense as a name for a travel card than Oyster or Octopus.
All that’s important is how the benfits of this card are marketed to users.
I like it and it seems to convey a feeling of ease of use.
paua card. at least its a new zealand theme.
This obsession with a ‘nautical theme’ is more cringe worthy than the name ‘Hop’, which isn’t too bad actually. In fact, a quick look around the world does not reveal a mautical theme at all. Even in NZ, Snapper is on its own with Auckland having ‘Hop’ and Chch ‘Metrocard’. In fact Snapper isn’t even an integrated ticketing system in Welly, which everyone seems to forget.
when will new zealand government stop invetnitng new ways to rip us off???
instead of new cards that will have to be on our minds and in our hands the entire journey so we don’t get panalised for forgetting to tag them off, they should fix their bloody services
– every day the trains are late
– the buses do not come
– etc etc etc
you know people why they want you to upload e $ on the card and limit you to 10 rides only?
because it’s another rip off
think!!!
they never care about people in this country
it’s not a convinience it’s that the country is broke but the kiwi rail has got a new office with the ergonomic chairs each $2,000
now the passengers have to pay for it 🙂
if my comment will not get posted there or will be modified I
Wow, Your really unhappy about the integrated ticketing project. I am at the opposite end of the spectrum, and are really happy about the new smart card.
Im not sure how you think the hop card will rip you off. The NZ bus fares are roughly the same as they are now with go-rider stored value, with at least a 10% discount from cash. Visual monthly passes will still continue to be used in tandem.
For students this card will result in a large discount. currently students can only get discounts on 10-trips and monthly passes. being able to get a discount on single trips will reduce the cost of my nzbus trips by over 40% (excluding intercity stage)
Experience in both wellington and international cities has shown tagging off is not as much hassle as you make out.
Improving the network and introducing integrated ticketing are not mutually exclusive, we can have both. In fact one of the reasons I am so keen on integrated ticketing is because it will speed up bus boarding and hence make buses timetabling more reliable.
“you know people why they want you to upload e $ on the card and limit you to 10 rides only? because it’s another rip off” Im confused by your sentence, why is it a rip off? Perhaps you are referring to auckland transports ability to earn interest off your stored value money? With current interest rates at ~3.5% and typical stored value amounts less than $50 this should be a very minor concern. Why are you limited to 10 trips. There is no discount for 10 trips so just use stored value, that way you can buy any integer number of trips. The 10 trip option is not encouraged however I understand it has been retained so parents can stop there kids buying lollies with there bus money. Monthly tickets will also be retained via the visual pass.
KiwiRail has virtually nothing to do with the ticketing project I don’t know why u attack them.
In the long run the integrated ticketing project has the potential to offer things like zone pricing free transfers which are required to make our PT network operate as efficiently as possible. It is definitely not to rip you off.