Without exception, everyone who I have spoken to about the rollout of the AT Hop card on buses over the past few months has said it has been managed disastrously. Perhaps most damning of all is the rollout onto Metrolink services which isn’t being done in one single go – but rather split messily into two stages: the first being today and the second being on November 24th in two weeks time.
From today it seems that all Link services (City Link, Inner Link and Outer Link) buses switch over to AT Hop. In addition to those services some other Metrolink buses will switch too. This is outlined below:
As Auckland Transport have made it nearly impossible to get refunds on balance from the current “Purple Hop” card, knowing when your service is going to switch over from one card to another is pretty important – hence our frustration over the past week that Auckland Transport has consistently refused to provide any further clarification around which Metrolink services will actually be switching over today and which won’t switch over until November 24th. For many people, keeping a balance on both cards and not knowing whether the money you keep on your Purple Card will be used or not (or whether it will effectively be gifted to Infratil who own Snapper whose technology sits behind the Purple Card) is a completely unacceptable situation.
To step into the gap and cover Auckland Transport’s complete uselessness on this issue, helpfully quite a few people seem to have done their own investigative work to provide a bit of further clarification about which Metrolink services do change today and which don’t change for another two weeks:
Routes changing over to ATHOP on November 10:
All LINK routes, 005 020 030 (Western Bays), 010 (Wynyard-Onehunga crosstown), 011 (St Lukes shopper), 283 (Hospitals), 703 (Hobson Bay), 767-769, 770-771 (*some* of the Tamaki Drive services, and St Heliers to Newmarket)Routes remaining 100% Snapper-HOP between November 10 and November 24:
258-267 (Dominion Rd), 274-277 (Mt Eden Rd), 299 (Waikowhai), 233-249 (Sandringham Rd) (looks like Roskill Depot does no changeovers)All other routes may operate with a mixture of Snapper-HOP and AT-HOP on a bus-by-bus basis.
It makes sense that many of the routes likely to be used by those who also use the Link services (e.g. 030 and 005 buses) will be switching over today. It seems as though the changeover is being done on a “depot by depot” basis.
I still struggle to understand why it has been so difficult for Auckland Transport to provide this level of clarification over the past week. They could have even noted that it was just a rough guide and there may be random other buses – any further information would have been useful. Sadly their disdain for the customer throughout the whole HOP changeover and the messiness of the transition has probably been a significant contributor to the downturn in bus patronage over the past few months and is likely to continue to impact on patronage through till March next year – which sounds like the date when integrated ticketing will finally be completed.
I have also heard unofficially that the remaining bus migrations to HOP are:
Go West – 7th December
Waka Pacific – 8th December
Ritchies – 2nd February
Howick and Eastern – 16 February
Waiheke Buses – 2nd March
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When you say Ritchies, is that including NEX?
Probably, they are together on the roll-out page, as are Go West and Waka Pacific.
Can I transfer my myhop balance to my AT hop balance?
This may have been clarified in their publications, but it is all so terribly designed and written that each time I’ve read it my brain is pained.
@Decanker – a select few Snapper retailers will remain with both Snapper and AT HOP gear for a limited time, where you can use your Snapper balance to pay in full or in part for an AT HOP topup. That’ll be another 25c top-up fee, thanks. Oh an minimum amount $10 so if you have less than $10 on your Snapper, you will need to make up the rest in cash.
Minimum amount of $10? Never saw that anywhere – if I’d known that I wouldn’t have waited nearly an hour for the Inner Link yesterday night just to get a chance to reduce my Snapper HOP money to just under $10. Sigh.
Sort-of. If your Snapper-HOP balance is, say, $7, you need to pay $3 cash (or EFTPOS etc) to make it up to $10 to top up your AT HOP card. Then with that (stupid) top-up fee, you will end up with a $9.75 top-up on your AT HOP card.
To make that top-up fee proportionally less compared to your top-up amount, you are best combing the Snapper transfer with a larger top-up to make that 25c spread further.
Oh and here is the list of retailers and ticketoffices that can do switchovers.
Or if you only have a bit of money left you can use it to buy something you want at any Snapper retailer, or assuming the cards don’t get cancelled you could save it for a trip to Wellington.
Thanks for that Andrew. Luckily I don’t live on the Shore given there’s no retailer there.
Go West 7th December, Waka Pacific 8th December – so they can change over multiple depots at the same time then? If they will do Go West and Waka Pacific like that, why can’t Metrolink’s depots have been done like that?
I hope AT/AT bLog will announce when all this mess it tidied-up.
Well we will definitely make celebrate after it has all been completed.
What a disaster.
There are 33 retailers in Auckland. That doesn’t sound too bad. Until you realise that there are literally only two retailers in South Auckland. There are none out East. And the only retailer in the whole of West Auckland is in Blockhouse Bay.
It should be easy, instead it’s painfully hard. Whoever is responsible for retail engagement (if there even is such a person!) should be demoted to handing out free HOP cards in the rush hour.
If you look again, you’ll notice the AT HOP retailers are where the card has been, or is about to be, rolled out to. Expect west and south retailers to start appearing toward the end of the month leading up to Go West and Waka Pacific changing over, and in H&E’s territory when the time approaches for H&E to switch over.
(this was in reply to George D above – forgot to hit “Reply” so it didn’t thread sorry)
Yes, but you can’t use a train without AT Hop. Trains don’t go out East, but they certainly go South and West.
Yes you can – cash tickets.
And once you’ve obtained an AT HOP card (they did at-platform sales during the rollout and remain permanently available at a few stations including Britomart, Papakura, New Lynn), top-ups are either online or at a ticket machine at all stations – so rail is adequately covered.
so rail is adequately covered.
No, it is not. Tell me how I would get from Middlemore or Papatoetoe or Manukau or Manurewa to anywhere?
Most people are not near a retailer at any point, and don’t have the time/inclination to go out of their way on a special trip to get a card. We’ve created a system where it is actually much harder to use the trains for those who are new or irregular users.
I’m not being tendentious – it isn’t easy enough. Just look at how much rail use has fallen recently. It was difficult for me, and I wanted to use the train.
@ George D – why wouldn’t you just buy a paper ticket at the machine?
George did you somehow miss the big blue ticket machines at every station platform? They’re like magic. You put coins, notes or your EFTPOS card in, and out pops a train ticket.
I’d been told by family members that you needed an AT HOP to use the trains, and all the branding suggested that they were AT HOP top-up machines every time I went past them (subsequent to eventually buying an AT HOP – which involved walking from Mt Eden to K Rd). I had no idea that paper tickets were still available, until the comments above.
Andrew, again, you’re assuming the knowledge you have is shared by others.
You could go on At’s website, which to be fair is rubbish and find out all of this info.
The machines clearly say “tickets and top up” on them, in big letters across the top.
It’s hardly secret squirrel.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=auckland+train+tickets
I gotta stop assuming people I converse with know how to look stuff up. *sigh*
My friend on his Mt Eden Road bus yesterday was told most buses (including probably his) were changing today…. But people should keep Snapper just in case.
My info seems to say it won’t change until the 24th but you never know.
Thanks for the update Matt. Heard anything about a start date for the AT Airporter 380 service? Buses embalzoned with the AT logo not using the AT HOP card is a farce.
AT Hop rollout.
When the North Shore NZBUS rollovver was delayed from August to October it caused some issues with my ATHOP balance. I had used my credit card to add $100 before the delay was announced. When I first used my AT HOP card 3 weeks ago I had a negative balance. The Britomart staff said they would put my case to Head Office to get $100 back onto the card.
Received this email 2 weeks later. Morale of the story for me is to avoid using a credit card to topup and in future be aware of the 60 day use by date.
“Thank you for your query regarding the pending transaction on AT HOP Card xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx , I have initiated a refund for your pending transaction to the amount of $99.75.
This will be added to the card when you present your card to a ‘Tag-on/Tag-off Post’ or ‘Electronic Gate’ after 48 hours. You will need to collect this (make a journey on your HOP card or tag on and then tag off straight away at a post) before 60 days otherwise this refund will expire. If you have no travel plans you could always go to your nearest tagging post, proceed to tag on and tag off within 30 seconds in order to reactivate this balance.
If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us. You can speak to a HOP Customer Service Representative, 6am-9pm Monday to Friday, 7am-8pm Saturday and 8am-6:30pm on Sundays and public holidays; phone (09) 366 4467. ……..”
I read about the 60 day thing (which seems ridiculous ). Luckily, the other half forgot to top up his card so had to use mine so the issue was avoided. What I am not sure of is if you have to use all your credit in 60 days? That would be very annoying for an occasional user like myself. I would probably revert to cash (which is not a great solution for anyone). Why do they need to make it so hard?
There is a expiry period for loaded cash, but I think it is years not days. It’ll be on the website somewhere – at the very least it’ll be in the terms and conditions for the card.
No the 60 day limit is how long a pending credit sits waiting at every tag post in the city for you to “collect” it onto your card the next time you use it. Once it’s made it to your card, it stays there.
(With AT HOP and many public transport cards around the world, the balance is actually stored on your card – it needs to be like this so it works both quickly, and works at all on buses which aren’t always in good 3G cellular coverage areas).
Just used my AT hop on the link. For all the rollou headaches I must say it was fast and flawless. At least we’ve ended up with a good system in the end.
yes I used in for first time on bus with Northstar yesterday, and it is noticeably quicker. With Snapper had to hold it for a second, but AT HOP is effectively instant. AT HOP also works with my Tap&Go credit card it same compartment, but Snapper refuses with any interference.
I still don’t get one thing with AT HOP’s speed. The card transaction is complete the moment the green LED lights up and you can pull your card away. But there’s then a delay before the tag post beeps? Most people wait for the beep which unnecessarily slows things down.
I also have a Purple HOP and a 2009-issued older generation Wellington Snapper card. The Snapper card is faster than the Purple HOP card with the same readers.
By looking for logic in anything where AT is involved you’re going to be confused.
Why can’t you buy a ‘paper’ ticket via the app and get rid of half the machine queue? Why can’t you buy a ticket at home and print it?
Why is it more expensive to get a monthly pass than just getting singles everyday for a monthly commute?
Why is a system (NFC) that was ‘in trial’ a year ago still not here? (Actually that one is probably because they were lying through their teeth trying to pretend they’d made the right choice between Thales and Snapper; which is looking more and more dodgy with every bus ticketing delay!)
Yes Snapper would have meant a quicker roll-out because installed on NZ Buses very early in the piece. However it is owned by NZ Bus, and other bus operators not happy installing a competitors gear on their buses.
Note with all the hype about Snapper in Wellington it only works because NZ Bus have a monopoly on buses in the inner city area. Note it cannot be used on trains or Mana/Newlands buses, and Snapper seem to have failed to convince their competitors to switch to Snapper.
And how could that work? Why would any operator want their competitor to have access to all their sales and route data?
Also why does any city want to be dependant on multiple and competing players to execute a coordinated Transit delivery?
I’d not really care about the botched rollout if the buses actually turned up.
I’ve tried catching the 466 route twice now; and both those times the first bus has just never bothered to appear. The blase well guess you’re shit out of luck attitude of the drivers who do turn up doesn’t exactly help.
Until that type of crap is sorted out PT in Auckland will continue to be avoided by most of the people who can make the choice – it’s also why people loathe transfers so much in Auckland and resist the new plan; because you get ditched part way through your journey far too often – and then you’re stranded generally somewhere less convenient than either your destination or origin.
Funny thing is the trains, once worse in this regard, are now far better. Yes there can be delays and cancellations but at least they tell you about it through text messages and platform announcements (although the texts can be a bit hit and miss). If the bus is delayed or cancelled, you have no way of knowing.
Also your monthly pass mention – that’s nothing new, and to do with the ticketing technology, at least not yet – the solution to that problem will come with integrated fares…
Typo. Should read “that’s nothing new, and nothing to do with the ticketing technology…”
Was more pointing out AT has a (continuing) history of bizzare decisions and operational policy.
Stupid thing with buses is its not that hard to have a bus CB in and say I’m not going to make it even if the bus positioned RT isn’t working. It generally seems like they might actually turn it off when late to prevent getting measured?
well the issue is with the bus operator. Traditionally AT have had little control over those matters. Have been slowly fighting back but has required legislative change, legislation that has only just passed.
Note the same bus operators you are berating are also the same company as are responsible for Snapper. They deserve much of the blame for this mess, though AT certainly do need plenty of blame too.
This is really a bus company problem rather than AT. Birkenhead transport does this really well. You hear the drivers radio in when they are going to be late etc and the control centre coordinates replacements. Their busses are almost always running very close to schedule. I also travel on Ritchies a lot and you hardly ever hear them bother with the radio. Unsurprisingly they are unreliable. In fact they are almost reliably late. Up to 10 to 15 minutes at times. Of course, sometimes they are on time so you have to be at the bus stop on time and wait or risk missing the bus when it is occasionally on time. Sure Birkenhead transport has a smaller network so in a way it is easier for them. But the other companies don’t even seem to be trying.
“Note the same bus operators you are berating are also the same company as are responsible for Snapper.”
Really? Since when did Howick & Eastern buy Snapper?
ahk got route numbers confused, most services with those numbers are NZ Bus. But same criticism still applies, NZ Bus services just as bad. Lots of them are given impossible timings with no down time, so routes inevitably late. Then others have endless timing points so at off-peak times you spend more time waiting than on the bus.
However with the Link they are good at communicating. Eg if Link buses get way off timetable and end up meeting, then one unloads passengers and cuts out a section of the route so they can catch up to the timetable.
At least with increased frequencies it should drastically reduce issues with late buses….
I’m on the Three Kings/Mount Eden route which is already a frequent service one, and sadly it is crap. Complete and utter crap.
That is partly because some of the services start much deeper into Mount Roskill, so don’t necessarily meet their scheduled time when they join the main route at Three Kings.
The bus lane on Mount Eden Road is a “bitser” – there’s a bit here and a bit there, but it is not continuous. While many people blame the laneless Mount Eden Village for the problems, many of the delays are caused by the lack of bus lane south of Duke Street. As traffic backs up most of the way to Three Kings by 0730, the bus can take 15 mins to get from the TK terminus to Duke Street – a time that should take less than 2 mins. I can walk it in about 10 mins.
Then there is the vast number of bus stops, and a great deal of passengers boarding, so the bus gets progressively further and further behind schedule and overloaded, and can start leaving passengers behind before it gets to Balmoral Road – south of the two big bus stops within Mount Eden.
So if you’re trying to board a 277 (Mount Roskill) bus after 0730 at Mount Eden Village, you may be better just to walk to the city.
I get somewhat pissy when AT trumpet my route as one of the frequent service successes.
The problems you encounter seem to be more due to overloading and stop placement though. Repositioning bus stops and extending bus lanes would probably help, and it would mean even more frequent buses for the some opex
Interesting analysis of that bus route. I used to use Manukau rd but decided to give Mt Eden rd a go. It was , for me at least, the best bus route I have ever used to get into the city. (I get on at three kings). The best solution for overcrowding? Double Decker buses I reckon.
I would prefer to see frequencies increased to 5 minutes during the day before we go to double deckers tbh, I don’t think that 10 is often enough for the full effect of turn up and go to work.
There has been lots of talk that this will be next for double deckers.
Note in the RPTP there will be 2 bus routes running every 5 minutes at peak (a bus every 2.5 minutes!) and 2 routes each every 15 minutes at off-peak times. One will be via Hillsborough Road, and one via Melrose Road. Of course that won’t definitely happen until 2016, but a chance they might do improvements earlier if need be.
“I’d not really care about the botched rollout if the buses actually turned up.”
This! I have lost count of the number of angry texts I have received from my other half about buses not turning up. The thing with operating a one car family is that you need PT you can rely on. That just doesn’t seem to be the case in Auckland at the moment.
This whole retailer thing wasn’t a problem with snapper, I had no money on my snapper waiting for a bus (I could check it with the app), I just used the snapper app on my phone, presented my card, entered my debit card details, it asked for me to hold my snapper to the phone, done, all in time for me to tag on the bus which arrived 5 seconds later and low and behold my $9.75 was there. AT hop is a step backwards not having this functionality imo. Sure they might be getting it, but they demoed it last year, and still nothing, snapper is the only company that ever did mobile wallets properly and promptly. The only thing that I like about AT hop is (or will be) its available on all major transport services in Auckland, but snapper could of just as easily been that…
Though, I would rather the system just used Visa paywave/MC paypass, with the option to get a “AT” branded Visa Prepaid card for younger folk who cant get a debit card, that would cut out the hole need of having multiple cards and could connect directly to banks (via debit card) or credit cards. But then I suppose they couldn’t make there $0.25 every time, except off the prepaid card.
AFAIK Paywave and PayPass require an online real-time connection to the data processing back-end which makes them harder to implement on buses who aren’t always in range of a good cellular signal.
And with phone-to-card topups, yes AT are lacking here but then again Snapper are lacking in hardware-free* online and automatic topups – each technology or implementation has its different ups and downs.
* “Hardware-free” as in the customer not needing to own a NFC device like a small number of smartphones or a $25 “feeder” device.
I imagine when doing the more complicated integrated ticketing that we will see soon, is that it is much easier if AT control the whole system, rather than dealing with MasterCard/Visa and their competing systems.
That’s not necessarily true. I know when I use my Credit Card for Paypass/wave, that it always approves it instantly without checking my balance. However, when I use my debit card it does take 5-10 seconds (haven’t really counted) in pending before it approves or declines it. I’m sure this is the same in NZ. Therefore, they could just have it available for credit cards only.
PayPass/PayWave has been working on london busses since 2012. Seems the issues can’t be overcome.
Even better in London as your regular free EFTPOS equivalent card is always either VISA or Mastercard, so pretty much anyone with a bank account can ride public transport when in London.
Daily fare capping etc is still applied so there’s really no reason to get an oyster card if all you catch is the bus. This year it should be getting rolled out on the full network of tube, trams, and railways too.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2247521/Is-end-road-Oyster-card-London-buses-accept-pay-tap-credit-cards.html
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless
More Snapper astroturfing. Interesting how this happens every time there’s a post on this topic.
Adds to my belief that the whole thing is deliberate on NZ Bus / Infratil’s behalf – they are sabotaging the AT HOP rollout as a “dog in the manger” attempt to punish AT for not going with SNOP.
Would love to know how you think this is happening. If it is true how come all the other bus companies seem to be beset by delays also? Little NZ Bus elves breaking in at night to jinx things?
The decision to roll-out Metrolink over two weeks was an AT decision. I suspect they weren’t prepared to commit the resources needed to do it properly.
I suppose, but AT said their AT/Telecom/Westpac trial was successful, so where the hell is the app and required telecom mwallet-revised sim, I am a vodafone customer but I would just swap around sims until Vodafone’s completed there testing or whatever it is they do. Some AT staff member told me they are no longer doing it and are only having AT “keychains” similar to Snappers ones available from their online store.
If Snapper had launched Touch2Pay in Auckland, you would have had a point. But that isn’t available here either. You have to travel to Wellington to get the right SIM card!
Ugh. Why this rollout has been so amateurish is beyond me.
On the brightside I just used the AT hop on the link and it was much faster than snapper.
The driver did take a while referring to her instructions to log in to her system at the start of the journey though!
I am totally on the side of the majority of people here with regards to how unprofessionally this has all been done, but to give AT credit where it’s due, it has done the roll out ‘relatively’ quickly compared to other places, and my example is Sydney. They’re rolling it out at snail’s pace here, with only the ferries done and a few stations on the north shore and eastern suburbs lines (plus city circle) done so far and if you’re destination and origin station are on those lines, there’s really no point in getting the Opal card and I would say very very few people in Sydney have one. It’s going to take many years to finish it at this rate. I know Sydney’s rail system is many times larger than Auckland’s, but at least you guys got it all done at once.
There’s a reason both Auckland and Sydney are having problems. The two people primarily responsible for the issues in Auckland are now in charge of the Sydney rollout.
Matt,
Why did these folks leave AT for Sydney? Did they jump or were they pushed?
And did the individuals referred to come from the previous amalgmations in 2010 or where they appointed “from outside”?
They came from the amalgamation and I suspect they were smart enough to jump before everything went to crap and they were pushed. A lot of the issues today stem from decisions they made early on that current staff are having to try and clean up.
Heads need to roll over this ongoing debacle and the silence from AT’s top brass is extraordinary. The next few weeks’ confusion is ridiculous and is making passengers shake their heads and get angry. Telecom’s former CEO Theresa Gattung famously revealed the secret to excellent marketing is to confuse. That legal sounding leaflet AT has handed out over the Metrolink change does just that. And it is all just too hard for the average punter.
I’m still waiting for AT’s marketing people to explain: Why is this running so many months behind? Why is there no easy way to get money transferred between cards?
Where are all the promised local retailers? Why are you making the casual user even more confused by calling it the purple AT card instead of Snapper? Why can’t you do the changeover in one hit? Why can’t you tell us “officially” what routes are changing and when.
Sadly I have come across people – four in my workplace alone- who no longer use the bus or say they won’t over this confusing period until say next March (if they relate to the next uni year). The truth is once you lose them they may not come back especially if they find cheapish early bird parking for a car.
Those reading this blog may understand and have a higher level of tolerance with such shambles but try chatting to other people who do not follow the politics and transport changes so closely. Their tolerance is less and they are fed up. The wildly unreliable bus sign information is already a discouragement to rely on buses.
AT’s mandate and the government’s demand for extra funding- is to increase patronage but it’s doing everything it can to discourage it and the patronage results for the last few surveys are telling. This madness is their fault but the AT top brass and spin doctors continue to collect their massive salaries with a sad toll on bus patronage and confidence in public transport.
Perhaps we need AT to implement a mandatory “catch the bus to work” policy for it’s upper management – even if it was just one or two days a week, they might see how stupid the changeover is, and how accurate the real time signs actually are.
Yes AT’s main office at Hendo has the hughest frigging at grade car park. Apparently the traffic engineers all live in Howick and drive all the way there cursing……
Not even catch the bus, just don’t drive. They need to see how terrifying cycling can be too/
To be fair it is very hard to get to Henderson by public transport unless you live and West Auckland or live by the railway line.
For example takes 45-50 mins from Mt Roskill to Henderson, and have to choose from a mish-mash of bus services.
New network will vastly improve this with huge improvements to cross-town buses.
Something we can all agree on. As much as I hate to say this, AT needs to be more like a private business on the customer end.
That depends on which private business it’s run like. Air New Zealand? Sure. Slingshot? Not so much.
as long as that business is not NZ Bus!
The sad things is that thanks to the way Rodney Hide and Steven Joyce set it up, AT is run like a private business, albeit one accountable to the National party government rather than its nominal ‘owners’, the council elected by the citizens of Auckland. Moreover, while its title may state that it’s a council controlled organisation, the reality is that its governance is structured on a private rather than public model. In fact AT has to start addressing the idea of public service rather than private business.
Wonder what Snapper’s plan is now for the terminals that are still installed at dairies around Auckland? If dairies still have them, then using your Snapper Hop card to pay for milk / bubble gum / bread whatever to wind down you balance will be a lot easier than doing a transfer of the balance to your AT Hop card.
I know that several dairy owners I spoke to didn’t like Snapper at all, fees were way too high, in fact one of my locals sent his back over a year ago – and this is a guy with a bus stop right outside his shop!
kris_b – Snapper retailer fees don’t seem to be a problem in Wellington, where there are many such outlets.
No problems on the 020 this morning. About half using cash though.
I pity the poor driver on the city link yesterday, she was getting very frazzled telling every single passenger that they could no longer tag their pule hop but had to start tagging on and off the blue hop instead. At the end of the day it seemed no passengers had any clue what was going on and it was all up to the driver to manage it.
Seems like a lose opportunity that cards aren’t for sale on the bus at this swapover period…
This comment in the herald this morning:
“Auckland Transport says NZ Bus passengers should store credit on both Hop cards for now, promising they can transfer any remaining balance of $10 or more from the Snapper to AT versions at the end of the roll-out period.”
Is that a new policy?
The Snapper machine was not working on my bus this morning so the standing room only bus got a free ride!
On my daughters school bus this morning the AT Hop card was required. The majority didn’t have it and she claims that one boy was refused a ride, while others were let on. These are Intermediate age kids, and it’s not feasible to walk from our bus stop.
What a disaster all round. i try to buy a new Hop card for my school age daughter, they don’t know at britomart which bus lines are switching when. So I try to figure that out myself and the answer for Metrolink is really sometime in November. Then they only sell the cards at one dairy within 3 miles of home. Then a bus which only takes the new cards come along today and some of the school kids aren’t allowed on the bus. Then when you try and transfer the balance from your old card the website sends you in a permanent error loop. Then when you try and register the new cards the website won’t let you do auto top ups on a linked account. And do i really want to give AT all my personal data and my bank account number? Is the information secure? I really want to like public transport but this isn’t helping.
the 685X took only the new AT HOP cards today- most passengers were prepared in the morning, but in the evening, I was surprised by the number of passengers who had never heard of the new cards, even the young yuppie types. I agree that AT is handling the change-over terribly, but I would have thought that everyone would have heard of the new cards, especially those who ride the bus, given the publicity about them. The driver handed out some sort of ticket to those who only had the purple HOP card- a free pass?
Another point- any idea why NZ Bus hasn’t commented on the changeover mess?
Trying to manage the balance is the old HOP card is made more difficult, they said Waka Pacific would transfer across on 8th Dec or 24th Nov… well they are running the new cards this week..I planned for the 24th and now have a $45 balance on my old HOP card.
You can have the balance transferred to your ATHOP card at Britomart and some other centres.
I just noticed it said the 24th now, and was like what!!, originally it was the 10th and 17th.
Go West confirmed for 7 Dec, Waka Pacific for 8 Dec.
Thought the AT hop website may now be functioning at some sort of level-wrong again! Can’t believe the quality of the system in this day and age. Totally ridiculuous
Its not painful that AT Hop came out, I like AT Hop Card looking.