One bus card to rule them all: Auckland joins national ticketing system

Wednesday, 28 February 2018

The payment system will allow credit cards to be used on Auckland buses.

Auckland will join efforts to create one bus card for every public transport option in the country.

Auckland Transport said it would join a national ticketing system, termed GRETS, that will plug 11 other public transport authorities into one ticketing network stretching the length and breadth of New Zealand.

The system will eventually allow the use of credit cards on buses, trains and ferries across the country.

Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan said the organisation agreed the city would adopt the system 'at the earliest opportunity' after a meeting held with the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Greater Wellington Regional Council.

**READ MORE:

Wellingtonians resisted the adoption of Auckland Transport's HOP card in favour of their Snapper card.

* Public transport payment revolution coming to everywhere except Auckland

* Wellington to get one ticketing system for all bus services

The system will see all of the country's public transport operating on one ticketing system.

* No date set for ticket to ride everything after delays over new system

* Snapper card faces uncertain future as NZTA pushes to have Auckland's Hop card in Wellington**

'In a country the size of New Zealand it just doesn't seem logical that people can't have a transport card system that recognises the SuperGold or student status wherever you are or which doesn't allow someone from Nelson to travel on a bus in Wellington without buying a new card.'

Greater Wellington Regional Council was leading the development of GRETS which was expected to be ready by 2022.

Originally conceived as a system for the Wellington region, GRETS turned into the lead project for a national ticketing system after the capital's transport authority resisted pressure from NZTA to replace its Snapper card with AT's HOP system in 2016.

GRETS has faced years of delays and was originally scheduled to be launched in 2018.

Several regional authorities hoping to adopt it had been forced to create interim ticketing systems as their own neared the end of their useful life and GRETS remained mired in hold-ups.

Auckland Transport has previously been cautious about joining GRETS.

When its adoption by most public transport authorities was announced in 2017, Auckland Transport said it would not be joining them.

Some of that caution was still on display at their board meeting on December 5, where board minutes recorded NZTA had expressed a desire for Auckland Transport to join GRETS.

'It is fair to say that Greater Wellington Regional Council has been strongly independent,' the board minutes noted.

'We have not seen the business case or RFP for the GRETS system.'

Nearly half the country's public transport journeys take place in Auckland and the board minutes noted such a system would have to be 'operationally stable' before it could be adopted by the region.

Auckland Transport's HOP card is now the third largest payment card in New Zealand. Only VISA and Mastercard are more frequently used.

Board minutes from December said with GRETS expected to roll out in 2022, the earliest Auckland could adopt it would be 2024.

Hannan said while the GRETS system would allow for the use of credit cards there would always be a need for a transport card for those without credit cards.

'Whether the HOP card will be retained in its current form has yet to be decided.'