Nationwide public transport ticketing is coming - but this time really, truly and next year

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

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Seventeen-odd years of waiting for one swipe-on-swipe-off nationwide public transport ticketing system will come to an end for Wellington next year and the entire country soon after.

Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash confirmed the Motu Move national ticketing solution that is already being trialled in Christchurch was coming to Wellington in 2026, hopefully early in the year.

It will mean that people can use an eftpos or debit card, or other electronic payment, to swipe on and off public transport around New Zealand. Total weekly and daily fares will be capped meaning people “will never pay more than a certain amount each day and week”, Nash said.

The option of a standalone Motu Move card was also possible.

It is a dream that has been a long time coming. Back in 2018 it was promised for Wellington in 2021 with the rest of the country catching up in 2026.

Even in 2018 Paul Bruce, from the group Congestion Free Wellington, was frustrated at the delays.

'We're really embarrassed by the way [the target date] keeps getting pushed further and further out,“ he said.

'It's something many other places in the world have had for 10 years. We've been talking about it for the last 12 years.'

By 2021, Metlink said it was working towards a roll-out in 2022.

“It was always going to be ready in two years, no matter which year,” Nash said on Monday. But this time it was real, it was coming, and people could sign up in coming months to Motu Move to use in Christchurch, then Wellington sometime in 2026.

Nash understood New Zealand would eventually be the first country in the world to get an integrated nationwide ticketing solution. Auckland, which already had its own bankcard-able system would be the last to join up and would likely be a couple of years off, he said.

The company behind the system, Cubic, also did London’s Oyster travel cards as well as systems in Queensland and San Francisco.

Environment Canterbury councillor Joe Davies said the trial in Christchurch, which started on the airport bus in December had been a success with people finding it good to use.

It was particularly helpful for international visitors who could get straight off a plane and onto a bus using their bank card, he said.