Snapper Car on Khyber Pass

The latest Infratil monthly report states that

Preparation is well advanced on bus fleets of North Star, Waka Pacific, Go West and Metrolink and Snapper is engaged with Auckland Transport to ensure coordination between both party’s customer service teams. Snapper will be available in April 2011, with installation completed by July 2011.

In Auckland over 80 shops now signed to accept Snapper for payment and to provide reload services. The objective of having Snapper available for use on major national branded outlets is also progressing.

So it looks like the cars are being used to roll out to the retailers. Still no word on when Auckland Transport’s Hop branding exercise will commence.

For those not quite up to speed on how integrated ticketing is progressing in Auckland, here is the timeline so far:

2 December 2009: On the eve of the confirmation of an integrated ticketing system for Auckland public transport, unsuccessful tenderer Snapper announces the rollout of Snapper on NZ Bus services, to be completed by the end of 2010. A spokeswoman for ARTA said there would be no public funding for Snapper. Authority chief executive Fergus Gammie called Snapper’s announcement “premature”.

7 December 2009: Auckland Regional Transport Authority sign an $47m contract with Thales to provide integrated electronic ticketing for buses, trains and ferries.

14 December 2009: Brian Rudman cites a confidential paper from Infratil director Paul Ridley-Smith, which states “if Snapper can’t expand into Auckland then its business will be permanently sub-economic and it may have to withdraw from Wellington, where it was introduced 12 months ago.”

16 December 2010: Auckland Transport announce that “Supplementing the contract already in place with Thales, a Participation Agreement has now been signed between Auckland Transport, NZ Bus and Snapper for the introduction of a single smartcard for use on NZ Bus services as part of the Auckland Integrated Ticketing program.

“Interoperable equipment will be deployed onto services run by NZ Bus early next year. Customers of North Star, Waka Pacific, Go West, Metrolink and LINK will use a contactless smartcard which will launch Auckland Transport’s Integrated Ticketing brand.”

“We will be following the deployment of equipment on NZ Bus services with the expansion of Integrated Ticketing on rail and ferry services. We expect the timing for this to be in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup.

“This will be linked to the launch of a travel product specifically for visitors to Auckland which will make public transport an attractive option during the period of the Rugby World Cup. We will be announcing further details of this and other initiatives over the coming months.

“Supporting this participation agreement for bus equipment and ticket deployment, Auckland Transport’s ticketing system partner, Thales is progressing the development of the rail and ferry solutions and the central system.

Bruce Emson, NZ Bus CEO, announces the roll out of the card will commence in March 2011. Programme Director Greg Ellis maintains that the key objective is still to have one card across all modes, and that the new card won’t be called Snapper.

17 December 2010: Ritchies and Howick and Eastern Buses say they are still investigating options, and are unlikely to sign up in time for the Rugby World Cup.

24 December 2010: The Herald runs a story that there is a budget of $1m to publicise the “Hop Card”, which is a “a new electronic ticket for seamless travel on buses, trains and ferries. It refuses to confirm the name until launching an awareness campaign late next month for the $98 million card, although chief operating officer Fergus Gammie has assured Auckland Council’s transport committee that the region’s public transport brand would be prominent on it.”

25 Jan 2011: Work on installation of Thales installed ticket validator machines commences at Mt Albert, Morningside and Mt Eden stations.

Bus operators Ritchies Transport and Howick and Eastern said they were still investigating various options for joining the scheme, and were unlikely to sign up in time for the rugby cup.

Ritchies director Andrew Ritchie said the ticketing machines on his 200 or so Auckland buses were relatively new, and he saw no urgency to join the scheme until restructured fares become available as a sequel to the ticketing project.

Ritchies operates the hugely successful Northern Busway, so getting Ritchies on board is pivotal to the success of an integrated ticket.

Again, it is disappointing that a huge amount of effort is going into technical solutions to support ticketing products that should be redundant.

Take 10 trip (multi-journey) tickets for example.  Users have to buy blocks of 10 tickets for preset stages.  You can currently use your GoRider card for this.  But if your bus trip goes 3 stages and your multi-journey ticket is good for two stages, then you have to pay for the extra stage with cash.  Similarly you lose money if you only travel 2 stages on a 3 stage ticket. The only reason that people buy these inconvenient tickets are because the tickets are heavily discounted, especially for tertiary students.  Implementing a 10 trip ticket on a GPS “tag on / tag off” system like the new integrated ticket is problematic.  You have to have logic to know how much extra to charge the customer if they override the preset number of stages, and deduct this amount from the card on exit.

This is complexity we don’t need. These same discounts could easily be applied to” stored value” fares.

The sooner we get on to a simplified fare structure that includes the Northern Busway in Auckland, the better.

Auckland Transport today announced a key development in the region’s Integrated Ticketing system will be introduced early next year which will allow people to use a single “smart-card” on public transport in Auckland.

Auckland Transport’s Chief Executive, David Warburton said, “Supplementing the contract already in place with Thales, a Participation Agreement has now been signed between Auckland Transport, NZ Bus and Snapper for the introduction of a single smartcard for use on NZ Bus services as part of the Auckland Integrated Ticketing program.

“Interoperable equipment will be deployed onto services run by NZ Bus early next year. Customers of North Star, Waka Pacific, Go West, Metrolink and LINK will use a contactless smartcard which will launch Auckland Transport’s Integrated Ticketing brand.”

Dr Warburton said, “We will be following the deployment of equipment on NZ Bus services with the expansion of Integrated Ticketing on rail and ferry services. We expect the timing for this to be in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup.

“This will be linked to the launch of a travel product specifically for visitors to Auckland which will make public transport an attractive option during the period of the Rugby World Cup. We will be announcing further details of this and other initiatives over the coming months.

“Supporting this participation agreement for bus equipment and ticket deployment, Auckland Transport’s ticketing system partner, Thales is progressing the development of the rail and ferry solutions and the central system”.

Peter Beggs, Country Director, Thales New Zealand said, “As the core ticketing system provider (central system, rail and ferry), Thales welcomes the participation of other suppliers in providing the bus solution for the system…”

• David Warburton (Auckland Transport CEO)
• Bruce Emson (NZ Bus CEO)
• Mick Spiers (Thales Programme Manager)
• Miki Szikzai (Snapper CEO)
• Greg Ellis (Auckland Transport AIFS Programme Manager)

Other bus operators were not there.

The guts of it is that Snapper and the Auckland NZ Bus rollout has officially been brought into the AIFS project. Mick Spiers said that the Snapper card will integrate with the Thales designed back end system.

The Snapper card is apparently going to be branded as the integrated ticket – they didn’t mention “Hop” card branding.

Mick Spiers said that Thales is focussing on implementing validator hardware for selected train stations and the Auckland and Devonport ferry terminals. He didn’t specifically say that they rail and ferry validators would support the Snapper card though.

I asked if there was going to be any rationalisation of the different ticketing products such as multi-journey. The answer from David Warburton was today’s announcement is stage 1, and that rationalisation will occur at a later stage. This is the wrong approach in my opinion. Products such as multi-journey tickets with preset numbers of stages just do not work with a tag on / tag off system. The only reason MJ exists is because tertiary students get a 40% discount when they use it.

Other bus operators were not present. They are “at different stages of understanding”. I’m curious to know what they think and if they are going to use the Snapper card or the Thales card (if this is still going ahead). I asked if this meant that there is still the potential for two different cards to have to be carried. Greg Ellis said that the key objective is to have one card across all modes. I’m still struggling to see how the card can be anything but the Snapper card at this point, given the Snapper and Thales cards are different technologies, but for now I guess we take this at face value.

Bottom line is that there doesn’t seem to be much new here, and there are still more questions than answers.  I’m really hanging out for the new fare structures as I was hoping that after a year this would have been thought about.  Kudos to NZ Bus if they can pull off the Snapper implementation in the first quarter of next year, especially if they have to support the existing ticket types.

Mathew Dearnaley asked for a list of milestones for the project because, as he said, the project has been going for a year now and it has been hard to know what has been going on.

ARTA’s Chairman, Rabin Rabindran said, “This is history in the making for Auckland and New Zealand. After a long and often challenging process, ARTA is at the gate and very happy to be signing the contract for the supply of a superior, multi-modal transport ticket for Auckland, which forms the basis of a core central ticketing system for New Zealand. This is about winning the big game.

Read ARTA’s media release here.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA), in conjunction with the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), today announced the next step in the delivery of an integrated ticketing system for Auckland’s train, bus and ferry users with the selection of a preferred tender.

ARTA’s Chairman, Rabin Rabindran says, “This is a critical next step in the delivery of an integrated ticket for use on Auckland’s public transport system opening the door to greater ease of public transport use by our customers. Having a smartcard in your pocket will be like having the keys to Auckland’s public transport system.

“In conjunction with NZTA we will be holding detailed negotiations with our preferred tenderer over the next few months and, subject to final confirmation of funding by NZTA, will lead to implementation of the system.

“ARTA’s tender process allows us to incorporate NZTA’s preferred approach including a centralised system and potential contestability of options available for parts of the system”.

Mr Rabindran said, “A consortium made up of French electronics company, Thales, in partnership with the Bank of New Zealand and Transfield services, has been selected by ARTA as the preferred tenderer to deliver New Zealand’s first fully integrated ticketing system for Auckland.

“In selecting a preferred tenderer, ARTA was focused on identifying a best value for money, proven, risk minimised solution. Thales has delivered a proven multi-modal system in more than 100 cities around the world including; Paris, Toronto, Oslo and The Netherlands. The company offers a proven solution thus minimising any development, implementation and operating risk.

“The solution is technically mature both in respect of customer use as well as an operator business system. Their offer was flexible, that is able to adapt to changes and developments in ARTA’s public transport offering. It is also extensible in respect of its ability to move into small payments most particularly with the BNZ as banking partner, e.g. parking meter charges and small retail payments.

“All tenders were price competitive and tendered prices successfully benchmarked to similar recent international projects.

“In respect of price, final commercial terms are still to be negotiated. Funding is expected to be a mix of regional, NZTA funding and private financing.”

Mr Rabindran says, “The benefits of an integrated ticketing system to our customers are numerous. There will be no need for our customers to carry cash or to have the right change. There will be no need to have a wallet full of different tickets for different operators.

“Currently, each public transport operator has its own individual multi-trip and concession tickets, which can’t be used on another operator’s service. Often the tickets and concessions differ depending on the operator providing them, which is simply the way the system has evolved in Auckland.

“Boarding times will be faster for our customers because fares won’t have to be collected. The ticket will be a swipe on/ swipe off system. Faster boarding times will mean ARTA has the potential to put on more frequent services. Having a smartcard means ease of transfer for commuters between different bus operators, train and ferry services.

“An integrated ticketing system also has the potential to offer some very attractive fare reductions in comparison to cash purchase of tickets.

“The system will include automated gates, smartcard readers onboard buses and ferries, smartcard reload devices at selected rail and bus stations and ferry wharves, and the supply of all computer hardware, software, networks and communications”.

Mr Rabindran says the system will be similar to London’s Oyster system and Hong Kong’s Octopus system. Like Oyster, ARTA plans to initially implement core functions and progressively phase in additional functionality.