Seriously has anything gone right with this project? It seems that there has been issue after issue at every turn. If you didn’t get it, here is the email that people registered to receive HOP updates got today announcing the roll-out of AT HOP to both Northstar and Ricthies buses has been delayed (they had already been delayed once with Northstar meant to roll out earlier in August.
Important notice
Auckland Transport wishes to advise that the launch of the AT HOP card on North Star, Ritchies and Northern Express has been temporarily delayed.
Unfortunately an intermittent technical issue has been identified, which we are working to resolve.
We apologise for this temporary delay in the roll-out of AT HOP onto your bus service.
Please continue to travel using existing cards, tickets and passes until further notice.
We will advise as soon as possible when the roll-out will recommence and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Processing...
I’m curious if these issues are also affecting the bus companies that have already switched over? I have yet to use AT HOP on the buses as none of the companies that have switched are the ones I use. Would be interested to hear from other people’s experiences with AT HOP on buses.
AT HOP works flawlessly on the City Link buses. Just show your card to the driver (no tag on/off required), and he waves you through.
However this means you have to dig it out of your wallet, which sort of defeats the point of a RFID card.
You have to dig it out anyway if you have both HOP cards, since either will stop the other being read.
I use it on the ferry and have to dig it out each time, the swipe machine malfunctions every time i’ve tried it from my wallet.
I have an old magstripe card I don’t use anymore which I have wrapped in tinfoil and placed in the middle of the cards in my wallet. The AT-HOP (NFC) card and a building access card (RFID) are on one side, and the Snapper card (NFC) and my Cityhop (RFID) card are on the other. Problem solved, I just have to remember which way around to hold my wallet depending on the card I’m using.
(NFC and RFID operate on different frequencies so one of each won’t interfere with each other. Snapper/HOP and AT HOP are NFC. The access card for the Cityhop cars, and a lot of building and lift access cards are RFID)
Same. I only got a HOP card because I anticipate ticket machine FUBAR next time I catch a train. BTW why is the HOP card $10 if you front up in person to buy one but $5 if you buy it online and have it posted to you? It was so hard to find that obscure option on the website I had to ask AT customer service to send me a link to it.
I asked AT for comment about if the issues are affecting existing buses which have switched when the news first came out but I haven’t heard anything back yet.
AT Hop has worked flawlessly for me on Urban Express buses.
I am paranoid enough to suspect sabotage from NZ Bus. Interesting that this happens just when their buses are about to come online.
Doloras,
Fact -NZ Bus is committed to integrated ticketing in Auckland , and if you would ever be brave enough to step out from behind the pseudonym you hide behind I would take some delight in shattering your delusional bubble .
Zane Fulljames
CEO NZ Bus.
To be fair, appearances are rather contrary to that assertion.
Out of interest Zane, what IS the problem then?
Thanks for that, Zane. Your “PR-speak” denial didn’t say anything about NZ Bus’s parent company Infratil, which owned Snapper and held up integrated ticketing in Auckland for 18 months out of sheer rent-seeking, and was able to because of its buddy-ness with various National Party leaders. And I may be a pseudonymous coward (you could find out who I really am with a little bit of internet research), but you’ve got a nastily defensive attitude for a CEO of a major company.
I’m certainly not accusing you of attempting to hurt Auckland’s integrated ticketing system out of sour grapes – but perhaps some of the people in your organisation may “fit the shoe”, as the saying goes.
Don’t think you can blame NZBus for this. It probably relates to the failure of the card readers a week or so back. AT isn’t going to continue with the roll out till they sort that out and test to confirm it isn’t going to happen again.
Have you got a source for this remark about failure of card readers? I have yet to see a failure of AT HOP’s readers (but then I’ve only used the rail ones). Snapper on the other hand seems to be falling apart on many of the buses I’ve caught recently. Some of Snapper’s machines are holding up only because of liberal use of thick tapes and other creative solutions to keep them running. Just last week a bus driver had to reboot the Snapper machine and ask everyone on the bus to tag on all over again. Hopeless.
Refer other comments on this thread re Birkenhead Transport.
And note the lack of complaints about Urban Express. I do wonder if it’s a Birkenhead specific problem that perhaps wouldn’t be an issue on Ritchies/NZ Bus?
They are all installed by the same people (I assume contractors to AT) and given there are only two major bus building companies in NZ where the majority of buses come from, it should have little to do with the bus or the bus company. It is obviously a technology issue.
One has to wonder where these issues arise from.
Being an established smart ticketing system one would assume the modules being installed onto the buses are generic units which have been used successfully all over the world.
That would leave the back end system to be what is causing the issue. One likely issue could just be that they are using a new type of hardware, because the last hardware they used is no longer made, with these custom units can be as simple as the software just not liking the CPUs. This is actually a very common issue that any of you that are into high end PCs would have likely experienced before.
My other half just texted me that an AT guy made the announcement. Doesn’t exactly instil confidence….
Maybe you should do an article asking if AT are the most incompetent organisation in the public service
They seem incapable of managing anything, examples in recent times
AT Hop Roll Out full stop
Any interaction with their call centre
The management of roadworks, just look at the total mess they made of the roadworks on Elstree Avenue
The corruption probe
The refunding of unused 10 trip tickets
Their role in the electrification
The systemic shut downs of the rail network which have lost them 1000’s of customers.
I am sure others could add more, the Auditor General would have a field day if they went in and had a look, having just got my latest rates bill and working out how much goes to AT, it make me shudder at the waste.
Doloras doesn’t it like it when people criticize AT….
To be fair Chris, you appear to dislike it when AT is NOT being criticised.
Not at all – I’ll always give credit where it is due…….
And I’ll give them credit for delaying things if they aren’t working, however from what I’ve heard the specified cheap machines……..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11112457
in some unrelated but nevertheless good news for Auckland: Team NZ look set to advance to the next round in the America’s Cup. Even though I don’t really give a fig about Formula 1 on the water, I do believe that the last time we hosted provided a big impetus to cleaning up our urban act around the waterfront.
If Team NZ were to win then perhaps this would be the stimulus for more rapid development of Wynyard? And/or an LRT linking Wynyard, Viaduct, Britomart, and up Queen Street? The possibilities are quite mind boggling – and a good distraction from the day-to-day glitches that have plagued ATHOP. In saying that I’m sure we’re work through these glitches eventually ;).
Personally, I am hoping that team NZ lose. I agree that the original win brought some much needed change on the waterfront, built on a united feel good factor. These days, I don’t think people are as engaged and I think that the costs would outweigh the benefits. Would an America’s Cup these days mean that our newly opened up waterfront is gated off for the wealthy syndicates? Locals in San Fran don’t seem to be totally enamoured of the way things have panned out for their city.
We would have minimal costs this time as we already have all of the infrastructure we would need, and in New Zealand our sailing culture is so different to the rest of the world that we would never dream of cutting the event of from the public, just look at the openness of the round the world stopover.
Isn’t the Viaduct a disaster of urban planning? It always feels like it to me. Or maybe the America’s Cup inspired some actual improvements?
In my mind the legacy of the last Cup contains both important failures and successes. On the downside the Viaduct is a somewhat sterile wasteland that serves as a warning to 1) over-prescriptive planning regulations and 2) focusing on the needs of a wealthy mono-culture (Wynyard take note).
On the plus side, the Cup did catalyse major investment in the city centre that would not have otherwise happened. The focus on improvements to the public realm around the waterfront, in particular, seemed to have been something of a catalyst for Aucklanders to reconnect with the inner Waitemata harbour. A re-connection that is still playing out today, not only with Wynyard but also to the east where Ports of Auckland space is gradually being rolled back and more public space being created.
I suspect it’s all to easy for us to look back now, flushed with the success of the shared streets etc, and look to re-cast the previous America’s Cup as not delivering much, when I think it actually made a small but important contribution to Auckland’s (still nascent) efforts at urban renewal. And don’t forget that the first Cup came at a time when political/public support for investments in the public realm, was still fairly equivocal – especially in the city centre.
Personally I’d be quite happy to see the boats come back. I think the trick is not doing major things differently because of the event, but simply adjusting/accelerating what you planned to do anyway to meet the additional demand resulting form the whole palava. Anyway, I’m off-topic! Back to HOP … 🙁
I agree. I would go as far to say that without the viaduct redevelopment we likely wouldn’t be where we are today. It showed that we could start to redevelop the existing city and so would have helped push along the likes of Britomart. The key thing is that we learn as we go along and improve on things in the next place we do as I doubt no city starts out with the perfect result from day one. For example, when Queen St was redeveloped in the mid 2000’s there was huge controversy over it and how it much it favoured pedestrians over cars but it has been an outstanding success. It helped the council to be bolder with the shared spaces. With what we know now, if we were doing Queen St again the council are unlikely to be as worried about upsetting car users and removing a couple of lanes and more on-street car parks for wider footpaths would happen. But the council would only be able to push that due to being able to show how successful the previous plans had been.
I hope ETNZ win. It will encourage new invest,ent in the city. Wynyard area will be fast tracked. Just think of the new PT investment for the RWC.
There is a question of where the bases would be though.
I so hope they do. The vibe in 2000 was awesome. Less so at the next event due to the Coutts/ Butterworth saga. (And I really want a ride on a 72 but I’d settle for a 45).
What improvements aside from an upgrade to Kingsland did the RWC bring to PT? All the big money was spent on motorway projects for all the people visiting with their car on the plane.
Maybe not improvements put it did increase patronage.
It’s only been a month on Birkenhead Tramsport and in that time I’ve seen probably 20 readers out of order. For brand new hardware that is a real worry. Doubt that is anything to do with this delay, but is something to keep an eye on.
Also, the real time info screens now only show schedule information for Birkenhead Transport. Before the Hop rollout they showed the real time arrival nex to the scheduled time. Does anyone know the reason behind this?
Bingo. Why would AT and other bus co’s put more into service with a known issue.
Confused by this – Urban Express realtime info works fine, but as you say, BTL’s realtime info has gone quite dead. Both are on ATHOP.
To be fair to AT they probably have their hands full right now dealing with their corruption to have time to worry about their incompetence as well.
Will this however delay all the AT Hop roll outs? I am wondering how long the situation of there being different brand buses on the same routes (some with HOP some without) will continue.
As always there is no useful info (or any actually that I could find) on their web site about it.
There is no way it can be said that the HOP card system has been a success. I can confirm that the HOP card is playing up on Birkenhead Transport buses where, at times, it wont allow you to tag off. This puts into play the long winded bureaucratic process of 24 hour wait for the card to process, phone calls and hopes of a refund of the penalty several days later. You’d think computers had yet to be invented going by the shagging around to sort that issue out.
It also raises the question why is there a penalty attached when they should just charge the full route fare if one neglects to tag off.
Furthermore on HOP the fare evaders are just as prevalent on the trains especially secondary school age kids who are travelling a few stops. The lack of real enforcement plus lack of gates on stations is a killer for the ratepayers. AT must stop ignoring the half arsedness of the HOP system!
I have had two occasions in the last month where passengers leaving an NZBus could not tag off using the original HOP (Snapper) card.
In both cases I -and assumed all of us- incurred penalty fees the next time we tagged on.
The second time I got a penalty fee when I tagged on the next journey and bizarrely again when I tagged off at the end – so got 2 pings.
The procedure for getting compensation is a joke. You have to make a request, wait weeks and then go to Britomart (or a couple only other options), queque, show your refund email and then get the money back on your card.
All this has forced me to think of going back to carrying cash or using the car instead.
HOP cards were supposed to make it easy. The latest problems with the AT HOP card announced yesterday destroy any confidence in what was promised to be a foolproof world-class ticketing system.
At least with AT-HOP they can apply refunds a lot easier. I would [i]hope[/i] that someone is watching when a whole busload of people incur penalties (can’t be hard, look up tag-off failures grouped by bus trip, where there’s heaps it’s highly likely to have been equipment failure), and pre-emptively refund the lot.
Given the failures to date, a reasonably optimistic hope…but given most people travel to and from the same stop each day it wouldn’t take too much computing power to figure out the correct fare in each case I would have thought.
When I needed a penalty refund, I said that I didn’t travel near Britomart (which I don’t) so they posted me out 2 free ride tickets, so I could get to britomart and back again for my refund (only a few dollars worth of refund)… not the best use of their resources, but good for me!
Mike, AT Hop has tag on refunds- you email your issue and about 17 weeks later you’ll get an email saying that the refund will go through next time you tag on. I’ve only done this when AT Hop was on the train but presume the bus based system works the same way.
I’ve just got back to Auckland from overseas. I have no idea if I should be using an AT Hop, or a Snapper-Hop. I have even less idea where I can get one. Surely, there should be machines where you can put in your $10 (or whatever they cost) and out comes a shiny new card with a number on the back (that you can then use to add credit by internet or phone), and which allows you to top up your balance manually. These are the standard elsewhere in the world, but there appears to have been no intention to do so here.
Make it easy! The whole process should be near frictionless, and not require the person using the system to have any special information.
The whole debacle is a lesson on how not to do things.
Indeed. I am coming back to Auckland in December to visit my family there for a month and I sent an e-mail to the HOP people to advise me on what ticketing options would be available to me when I come back given the discovery pass daily passes are being phased out on certain routes from what I saw, and I didn’t even get useful information back! This, I find, quite unacceptable. It would be nice to know whether I am able to use public transport at all given the mess that ticketing is in. I’ve grown too used to ticketing being simple with a smart card in Stockholm.
I am, as it stands, having to rent a car for the entire month that I am in NZ as it would be too expensive and impractical to use public transport solely for my wife, her parents and myself (as well as my family in NZ), but I do want to avoid parking problems (and costs) in the CBD when we visit. Whether this is tenable without an affordable day pass is another matter. I like using public transport (and don’t own a car here), but I think this is still not quite an option in the eastern suburbs of Auckland where I shall be staying.
Am looking forward to seeing all the improvements though! Will be fantastic to see the progress of electrification!
That would be totally unacceptable to me. It values my time at nothing. I’ve been in the CBD about 3 times this calendar year.
It works great on birkenhead transport 🙂 really happy with it 🙂 just wish they would sort it out so that i don’t have to pay full price to catch the northern express!!
This morning on my UE bus the driver was handing out little business cards to everyone that say:
Dear Customer,
We have been experiencing a few technical issues with the new AT HOP card system.
If you have any issues with your card, or with tagging on and off, please contact us on 09 366 4467.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
UE have been having issues too. They aren’t as big as BTL so wasn’t such an issue. It does need to be sorted before it moves to the even bigger companies.
From what I’ve heard from AT, there are multiple issues, not just with the readers but with getting access to the data as well.
I haven’t had an issue with a UE bus so far. I feel sorry for the drivers. When things go wrong there isn’t a lot they can do I guess and having to tell customers they just have to ring AT can’t be fun.