Auckland Transport announced this afternoon that we’re another step towards implementing a proper integrated ticketing system:
Auckland Transport has awarded the tender to supply smartcards for the full stage roll out of Auckland’s HOP integrated smartcard to a joint consortium comprising Placard and NZ Post. The full stage roll-out of HOP will add trains, ferries and all bus operators to the mix.
Auckland Integrated Fares System Programme Director, Greg Ellis, says: “Placard is a leading smartcard manufacturer and provider of card management solutions in our region. Placard’s partnering with NZ Post adds specific local know-how which will underpin the distribution of the manufactured cards.
“The cards will be distributed to both point-of-sale as well as direct to customers who purchase them online.”
Mr Ellis says, “The first phase of HOP was rolled out very successfully in May this year onto NZ Bus services.
“The final phase of HOP will begin mid next year and be completed by the end of 2012, with the introduction of trains and ferries initially, followed by all bus operators. Prior to that Auckland Transport will be undertaking an extended field trial of the system utilising selected users. This type of closed pilot follows international best practice for the introduction of a new public transport ticketing system. ”
Ganesh Ganeshalingam, Placard’s Managing Director, says: “We are proud to have been selected by Auckland Transport to manufacture and personalise cards for the HOP integrated smartcard working closely with NZ Post for distribution of cards to the market. We are delighted to be part of the full stage roll out and look forward to working with Auckland Transport on this exciting project.”
It’s good to know that something is happening on this project, as things have been pretty quiet in recent times (aside from the A-Card rollout during the World Cup). However, it also potentially generates more questions than it answers – as we still don’t know the following:
- What does the ‘extended field trial’ entail? I had heard that regular HOP cards would be able to be used on the rail network by February (although there has been an obvious lack of faregate construction at Britomart and Newmarket) but I’m not so sure now. This project does seem to be plagued by endless delays.
- Will existing HOP card users need to swap their current cards for these new “Placard” ones?
- If a changeover is necessary, will the current HOP cards continue to be accepted on NZ Bus services, but not on trains, ferries and other bus services (totally undermining integrated ticketing)?
- If a changeover is necessary, will we keep our existing HOP cards (for retail purchases) and get new ones? How will we be able to easily tell the difference (aside from the lack of a Snapper logo on the new card)?
It’s not solely related to the rollout of the HOP card, but I’m also curious about what Auckland Transport’s plan is for actually modernising the system’s fare structure. The comparator city study recently undertaken highlighted a lack of free transfers as a key barrier to improving Auckland’s public transport system, so it would be nice to know how that issue is going to be resolved.
All this hassle really does make one wonder whether it would have been cheaper, faster and easier to simply roll out the Northern Pass across the rest of Auckland.
Processing...
It seems to me that instead of making more people use public transport, they’re trying to make more companies make money out of public transport.
Before the ripoff Hop Snapper, then (maybe?)Thales, now Placard-NzPost, I’m going to print a couple of cards myself and I’ll be a leading card provider too.
They need to cut fares dramatically before anything like the Northern Pass will seem like a good deal. A seven-day Upper Zone Northern Pass is over half the cost of a monthly non-discounted all-zones pass for Vienna (which is EUR49.50), and is only valid for a very limited part of the Auckland Council area.
We know we’re being grossly overcharged for public transport, which is hindering uptake, and we know that it’s likely that any move to rationalise fares into a zonal structure will be priced at similar, stupid levels. AT’s really playing a dumb game around fare rationalisation by not saying a bloody thing except “It’ll happen after we’ve got HOP rolled out completely.” They should be consulting with the public now to announce new fare structures in the last third of next year, and planning to have a proper integrated fares system in place for the start of the 2013 tertiary year.
I’ve seen this sort of thing before with government technology projects. They could buy a low risk system from a single vendor and implement it quickly. If there were issues then you’d know who to blame. But they’ll have made a project manager in charge of this one. Rather than just represent their government customer’s interests, they like to get in and organise things. Suddenly you have multiple vendors, no way of assigning responsibility for issues, and lots of project stages and project management overhead. But the project manager loves it because they’re spending a huge budget and that always looks good on a CV.
well,you said it better then me.
I have to admit, at the start of the HOP card implementation I trusted the council had it right and the implementation was going ahead as it was supposed to. Now with what I see as further delays that trust has completely disappeared, with tag posts on every train platform, why the hold up in at least getting the train system on board???