The first week of the HOP card rollout seems to have passed by without too many horrific stories. On Friday the NZ Herald reported that some people were trying to jump back onto their bus when they remembered they hadn’t tagged off (if you don’t tag off you can be charged the longest fare of that particular bus route). But it seems that Auckland Transport is getting around that issue by allowing people to call up and explain the situation – then they’ll have any penalty fares restored. That’s probably a good idea while the system beds in and people get used to tagging off.
I’ve had a few of my buses being North Star services, which has enabled me to use my HOP card on quite a few occasions now. Typically this is for the 005 bus that leaves Britomart at around 5.05pm. One cool thing about the MyHop website is that I’m now able to track my trips and check up how much money is left on my card:
It has been interesting to see the chaos that changing some – but not all – of the Herne Bay buses over to HOP has had. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many arguments between passengers and bus drivers: by late last week all a passenger tended to need to do was show their GO Rider card and the driver waved them on for free. I certainly don’t blame the driver – it’s pretty stupid operating two ticketing systems on the same bus route simultaneously.
And this is where things are going to get interesting next week. Aside from a few services – like some of the 005 services and some of the 015 services – North Star buses are pretty much confined to the North Shore. Chances are that most people either always use North Star buses or they never use them. This is not the case for Go West and Waka Pacific, who will switch over to HOP this coming Sunday. A huge number of streets are served by a mixture of Metrolink (which won’t switch to HOP until June 5th) and either Waka Pacific for southern services, or Metrolink and Go West for western services. If I think of New North Road buses alone, from memory the 210 and 211 services were Metrolink, but often the 212 and 224 services were Go West. There are also probably some exceptions to that rule.
Even on Sandringham Road services, which don’t actually go particularly near west Auckland, in the days when I used to catch the morning 240 bus it was typically operated by Go West: even though every other Sandringham Road bus was always Metrolink (aside from the very occasional North Star bus, believe it or not). It will be a messy couple of weeks, that’s for sure.
Further to that concern, last week I had it confirmed that this is not the only card swap-over we will need to do this year. Because our current HOP cards are basically rebranded Snapper Cards (yes Wellingtonians, your Snapper card will work on Auckland buses) in a few months time we will need to throw away these 17,000 “fake” HOP cards and swap them for real ones that connect to the Thales system.
Madness, I know!
So while Auckland Transport might be crowing about all the HOP cards they’ve distributed, the really big challenges are yet to come.
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If I understand correctly, unlike the change from Go Rider, the next changeover will at least have transitional capability, where both the Snapper and Thales cards will both work on NZ Bus owned buses for a while. Disclaimer: this is my understanding but I’ve not seen verification from AT.
That’s interesting to hear Andrew. What I’m worried about is the credibility of the system if we need to go through the whole changeover shennanigans again.
What does “credibility” mean in this context? There seems to be a belief that Auckland PT customers are incredibly “inconvenience-elastic”, and one too many horror stories in the Herald will cause them to abandon PT altogether. In fact, isn’t it the case that people moan, but use the system anyway, despite the hassle?
Doloras my concern is about ensuring that PT retains an image of being simple and convenient to use, as well as being well organised.
People may keep using it, but ideally the system should attract users rather than people using PT because they have no choice.
My point regarding all the swapovers is that I think it’s a potential disaster later this year and I am strongly encouraging AT to have an incredibly good marketing strategy to explain why their new HOP card now doesn’t work and needs replacing after 6 months.
“retains”? It’s never had that image, has it?
One can only hope that the Thales system will be fully integrated, not like HOP. Its just so stupid to pay a non tag-on tag-off ticket with cash as you can’t pay via the emoney on the HOP card in the bus.
Oliver you definitely will be able to do that. The Thales system is much more advanced than what we have now, which is a rebranded Snapper Card that connects to the Snapper “system”.
What I am curious about in the next card changeover is whether the cards will be swapped or whether we will have to fork out for the proper Thales HOP card. I think Snapper will want us to keep these cards, maybe we will have a hole punched in them too so we can’t get too many “proper” HOP cards.
Replacing cards again, then transferring the money at only 4 locations will make some people stop using these cards, one would think.
So will the Thales card be HOP branded as well?
Its all quite confusing, and I’m only using North Star busses. 😉
Right place this time!
Oliver – you can do that now with Hop/Snapper. Ask the driver for the ticket you want (or tickets if you’re buying for more than 1) and say you’re paying with Hop. People do it all the time with Snapper in Wellington
Don’t forget, they still need to make the Snapper/Hop work for Zone A and B passes, and the Northern Pass.
Also the pilot RWC ticket to be launched shortly will work on NZ bus as well.
Weird. When do the trains get them, again?
“The first week of the HOP card rollout seems to have passed by without too many horrific stories.”
And that’s about the most positive thing that any Aucklander seems to say about their PT system.
I wonder if the Hop card released later this year (compatible with trains and ferries) will also be compatible with all the other bus companies (Birkenhead Transport et el) next year. Or if a third swap over will need to happen.
Lee: The card released later this year will be the one that is expanded to all operators next year if I’ve been reading the stuff from AT correctly.
Yesterday I (purposely) let my HOP card go into arrears. It was in arrears by around $2.50. I topped up $30 today, so I would have presumed that my new balance would be around $27.25 (after 25c fee) but to my surprise the balance was $29.75 as if I hadn’t gone into negatives at all. I wonder if this was just a glitch, or if they don’t know about this. One could get a free ride if you let your balance go low and go into arrears, then top up without it being taken off.
Hi Shaun
The way an IOU works is that you incur it on the bus, and you will pay it back on the bus.
You need to top up your Hop card (either at a Snapper retailer, online using a Snapper Feeder, or at a Snapper kiosk) so that the next time you tag on to a bus you have enough money on your card to clear the IOU.
You can check out the Snapper FAQs on IOUs here http://www.snapper.co.nz/what-is-an-iou
If you email the 16-digit card number to info@snapper.co.nz we can explain any transaction activity on your card.
Cheers
Gabor
Head of Sales and Marketing, Snapper
And to add to that confusion, there are ex-Christchurch RedBus Busses running around Auckland as well!
The one I was on yesterday still had the MetroCard RFID scanner in it.
Just to add a couple of points of clarification to add to the discussion:
• Metrolink will change over on Monday June 6th not Sunday June 5th
• As stated Go West and Waka Pacific move to the new HOP card this Sunday 22nd May. Some people have pointed out that there may be confusion with different brands operating on some roads. The marketing material has tried to clarify this by pointing out that you will need a HOP card this Sunday if you travel on Go West and Waka Pacific. If you still travel on Metrolink (even if it is only occasionally) then you will need to retain your Go Rider card until June 6th.
• Thanks for the note about the ex Christchurch bus – this MetroCard scanner has now been removed.
I have been wondering what will happen with the Snapper/Hop card once the Thales card arrives. Those that did not already have a card are forced to fork out $10.00 for the Hop card. Will we get a free transfer to the Thales card?
Also at present I can store cash on my Bus card for free but Hop is charging 25 cents for the privilege of taking my money. This is a real pain as I prefer to have money stored on card as I change my travel depending where I want to get on/off the bus. I do not think I should have to pay a surcharge for this when we never had to previously.
Does anyone know if the surcharge will continue with Thales?
No need to change cards – the Snappper HOP card is compatible with the Thales HOP card. I think of HOP as the equivalent of VISA, with Snapper and Thales etc being the equivalent of different banks offering slightly different products. But there is no ‘surchage’ from using either Snapper or the Thales equivalent.
If only that were true Stu. Thales and Auckland Transport have both told me that another change will be necessary in the future.
Slightly OT but does anyone know if Snapper will swap out a Go Rider card in Wellington? I have one I use for the occasional trip to Auckland and don’t want to miss out on the HOP card change over
Dunno, but if you email me I could flick you my address and you could post it up. If you include a return envelope I’ll swap it over and post the HOP card back to you.
No need to swap – just use your Wellington Snapper card. It’s the same thing as a Hop.
For now it is. But good point – wait until November and then do the swap to a real HOP card.
Well Snapper have come to the party and I’ll be changing over a Go rider card in Wellington it seems. Lets just hope, it does not confuse my Wellington snapper!
Replying to Stu there is a surcharge every time you top up the HOP card if you want to store cash on the card. As I explained I don’t want to store trips as it is too limiting if I want to travel different trips. Coming from the Shore I get on at Albany or Constellation and there is a difference in fare between the two stops. In the past I could put $40.00 on my card and use it anywhere with the correct fare being deducted. I think I actually got a 10% discount by doing this. But since HOP, if I want to use the card same way I have to pay a 25 cent surcharge every time I top up. I understand this is a Snapper charge. I wont to know if I will still have top pay this top up fee once Thales card comes into play.
With Go Rider, you always got a piece of paper telling you how much cash or rides remained on your card. With HOP, if you top up with a number of rides instead of cash you get no permanent record either on a piece of paper or on-line. This is a step backwards and someone in IT has pulled a very lazy swifty on the website by not adding in a report on the number of rides left. I can’t believe this new system is being hailed as a roaring success. Not only is the on-line information out of date by 24 to 48 hours (if you top up with cash) or non-existent (if you top up with rides) but the number of retailers topping up cards has drastically reduced. Add to this the incredible confusion of the dual system roll-out and you have a huge step backwards. I would much prefer the 30 year old technology dot matrix printout on the piece of paper issued on the bus using Go Rider cards than the new HOP system where if you top up with rides you effectively have no way of finding out how many rides you have left. Even the Britomart top up guy wasn’t able to tell me this information. I can’t believe the IT people who created the on-line enquiry can’t add in this facility. Come on HOP, this is a pathetic system. And don’t tell me the Tag Off reader tells me how many rides I have left. So far, every time I use it is seems permanently to inform me that I have 5 rides left. If even if this were accurate, how I am supposed to remember this? This system is an example of appalling technology dumped on generally uncomplaining New Zealanders. Some fat software salesperson has pulled a huge con by selling this system to Auckland transport.
It’s pretty simple – don’t top up with rides. You get the same discount (or better) with e-money and you get more flexibility with e-money so frankly you’d be nuts to top up with rides.
Terry don’t forget that this is just a temporary system, the real version that AT is actually paying for is yet to come.
As I mentioned before if you use E-money you pay Snapper 25 cents for every top up. I presume that with rides you would not pay this.
Actually, and I have confirmed this, if you top-up with multi-rides you do not get charged the 25 cent transaction fee. If you top-up with e-money you do get charged it. Work it out. For 10 one stage tertiary rides, if you use e-money you are paying an additional 2.4 per cent. Why would anyone use e-money when this extra fee is being imposed? A price rise by any other name in my opinion. Topping up Go Rider cards either with money or rides never attracted any transaction fee. What is wrong with this picture? This amounts to a very sneakily slipped in price rise and what does the public transport patron get in return? Well instead of getting up to date information on what is remaining on their card they now get information which is 24 to 48 hours out of date in the case of e-money and nothing at all in the case of multi-journey top-ups. So let’s recap: a price rise and less up to date information or no price rise and no way of knowing how many rides are left when checking on the website. Progress? I think not.
Your 2.4 percent assumes topping up by the exact same amount as ten rides cost.
If you top up your HOP by $10, you get charged 25c or 2.5%.
If you top up your HOP by $100, you get charged 25c – or 0.25%. And don’t have to top up as much.
Fewer, larger topups minimise the 25c topup fee. Automated kiosks (when they come) will also get around this. “True” HOP may also get around this fee.
I am however surprised that this 25c fee (which is essentially an agents’ commission) is being charged by the HOP counters at Britomart though.
From what I’ve seen AT will be taking the approach that you need to ‘upgrade’ to take advantage of the added features of also using trains and ferries on your HOP card, which in a way suggests to me that NZBus will continue to allow their snapper system to run concurrently with the Thales system. Will be an interesting year to see how that all plays out.
Now the system has occasionally charged me double on regularly taken journeys for no apparent reason and to cap it all off, won’t let me board the bus despite the on-line enquiry and a Schnapper retailer confirming that I have sufficient credit on the card. This system will prove to be such an embarrassment to Auckland, I think whoever implemented it should have to pay back everything they have been paid as they are clearly incompetent and the whole thing ripped out before the Rugby World Cup otherwise Auckland will be seen as just a tin pot little Pacific Island choosing error prone last century technology for public transport concession.
The system we will have for the world cup and afterwards is not what has just been rolled out, consider the current version just an interim step before the project properly rolls out.
On the 29 Jun, tagged on symonds street and tagged off downtown, – normal costs 45 cents. Online transaction history shows tagged on 113 Great south rd, and tagged off Downtown – CHARGED $5.04.
Rang helpline, and told I have to wait for email conf, and then go to britomart and they will put money back on my card.
Fine, but its happended again on the 1 July – Tagged on View Rd, Mt Eden, Tagged off on Symonds street, normally $1.50. Online Transaction history, showed correct stops, but charged $2.14.
Is this going to happen offen……….and do I need to stroll off to britomart every 2nd day to get corrected?