Snapper being discontinued on Airport Flyer?

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allan

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#238181 5-Jul-2018 21:27

Am I reading this correctly? No more Snapper for fares on the Airport Flyer after 30 September? https://www.snapper.co.nz/a-summary-of-the-upcoming-snapper-changes-to-fares-in-the-greater-wellington-region/

Catch the 80, 90, 91, 92, 93? Snapper will be unavailable from 30th September.
Mana, NZ Bus and New Zealand Coach Services (NCS) will provide some commercial routes (listed below) that are independent of Metlink’s Greater Wellington regional bus network. As independent commercial services the fares and ticketing of these transport companies may differ from Metlink services.

Snapper will be available on the following services until 30th September, but Metlink’s new 30 day passes will not be able to be used on these routes.

NZ Bus
91 Airport Flyer

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#2050166 5-Jul-2018 21:42

Yep, looks like it. Snapper have said that the operator of the flyer would have needed to put updated gear in shortly, and they opted not to.

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allan

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#2050172 5-Jul-2018 21:46

ajobbins:

Yep, looks like it. Snapper have said that the operator of the flyer would have needed to put updated gear in shortly, and they opted not to.

But the operator is NZ Bus, who still have a decent chunk of the Wellington bus routes and will be having to put updated units into the GWRC sanctioned ones surely? Doesn't seem to make any sense to me, except to annoy customers who thought they were getting a single payment card on all bus services.

amiga500

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#2050175 5-Jul-2018 21:54

On my infrequent visits to Wellington I pay the Airport Flyer drivers with the exact amount in gold coins -seems to make them very happy!

JarrodM

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#2050191 5-Jul-2018 22:44

ajobbins:

Yep, looks like it. Snapper have said that the operator of the flyer would have needed to put updated gear in shortly, and they opted not to.

The operator being NZ bus who is owned by infratil, the same infratil who own snapper??

Linuxluver

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#2050199 5-Jul-2018 22:53

ajobbins:
Yep, looks like it. Snapper have said that the operator of the flyer would have needed to put updated gear in shortly, and they opted not to.

Another market fail.

Just get the Council to run transport. Private operators just make an unpredictable, unreliable mess for everyone

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#2050207 5-Jul-2018 23:19

Linuxluver:
ajobbins:

Yep, looks like it. Snapper have said that the operator of the flyer would have needed to put updated gear in shortly, and they opted not to.

Another market fail.

Just get the Council to run transport. Private operators just make an unpredictable, unreliable mess for everyone

I'm pretty sure that service only exists because the council refuse to offer a bus to the airport, because they'd have to pay the airport fees for the privilege. Hence no public bus service to the airport. I say nationalise the airport back from Infratil (who IMHO are one of the picture boys for corporate greed in NZ), and then we can have council busses to the airport.. and cheaper taxis and ubers without stupid pickup/dropoff fares.

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nickb800

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#2050236 6-Jul-2018 07:12

^ I think we did have subsidised buses to the airport, however NZBus figured out there was more money to be made running it as a commercial service and asked to be released from the GWRC subsidy system.

I'm really struggling to understand this decision - given that Snapper is Infratil's own, would that mean that the flyer becomes cash only? Or would they go the SkyBus route with credit card/online purchasing

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allan

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#2050373 6-Jul-2018 11:17

Apparently a Snapper decision. I dropped an email to NZ Bus, who have responded:

Snapper is the interim bus ticketing provider for the Metlink network. The Airport Flyer is not part of the Metlink network and Snapper has advised NZ Bus that it will not continue to support the Snapper system currently used on the Airport Flyer beyond 30 September 2018. NZ Bus is currently investigating alternative payment options and will advise customers once the decision has been made.

MikeAqua

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#2051928 9-Jul-2018 12:54

allan:

Apparently a Snapper decision. I dropped an email to NZ Bus, who have responded:

Snapper is the interim bus ticketing provider for the Metlink network. The Airport Flyer is not part of the Metlink network and Snapper has advised NZ Bus that it will not continue to support the Snapper system currently used on the Airport Flyer beyond 30 September 2018. NZ Bus is currently investigating alternative payment options and will advise customers once the decision has been made.

I got the same email - verbatim.

Poor decision by Snapper. I emailed to tell them so - no response.

Mike

MikeAqua

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#2051937 9-Jul-2018 12:56

would that mean that the flyer becomes cash only?

Waiting in the rain at the airport while ~30 people pay by cash - I can't wait!

Mike

nickb800

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#2051942 9-Jul-2018 13:03

The only explanation that I can think of is that NZBus is holding out for the nationwide ticketing scheme to hit Wellington in 2021. Subsidized buses are required to use Snapper from July 2018, so they are forced to bear the upgrade cost even though they will only have the gear for three years. Airport bus isn't subsidized, so not forced to upgrade, and probably gets a lot of cash payments from visitors/locals that don't normally use the bus.

Still crazy though. A snapper terminal can't cost more than a few thousand $ surely?

wellygary

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#2051956 9-Jul-2018 13:30

nickb800:

The only explanation that I can think of is that NZBus is holding out for the nationwide ticketing scheme to hit Wellington in 2021. Subsidized buses are required to use Snapper from July 2018, so they are forced to bear the upgrade cost even though they will only have the gear for three years. Airport bus isn't subsidized, so not forced to upgrade, and probably gets a lot of cash payments from visitors/locals that don't normally use the bus.

Still crazy though. A snapper terminal can't cost more than a few thousand $ surely?

Its appears its not the front end that is the Issue, its the Back end- the snapper readers the flyer has will be same as the others are installing as the cards aren't changing.....

Metlink are applying a bunch of discounts and free transfers between Metlink services, and I'm assuming its being done as "default"

I'm guessing that snapper/metlink have said to commercial services "if you want to join us, you will have to foot the costs of developing the system to allow discrimination between buses that get discounts and those that don't" and the Flyer have said "nah too expensive"

This was the response provided by a Wellingon Regional Councillor when asked about it

"Integrating non-Metlink providers into the Metlink Snapper system is made difficult by the fact that commercial operators have different fare structures than Metlink – i.e. what happens when you transfer from a Metlink Bus to an Airport Flyer in the offpeak – does the free fare transfer apply? Does the 25% off peak discount apply? At the moment the answer to those two questions is “No” because these are not services to which the NZTA and Regional Council transport subsidies apply. "

nickb800

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#2052024 9-Jul-2018 14:04

wellygary:

nickb800:

The only explanation that I can think of is that NZBus is holding out for the nationwide ticketing scheme to hit Wellington in 2021. Subsidized buses are required to use Snapper from July 2018, so they are forced to bear the upgrade cost even though they will only have the gear for three years. Airport bus isn't subsidized, so not forced to upgrade, and probably gets a lot of cash payments from visitors/locals that don't normally use the bus.

Still crazy though. A snapper terminal can't cost more than a few thousand $ surely?

Its appears its not the front end that is the Issue, its the Back end- the snapper readers the flyer has will be same as the others are installing as the cards aren't changing.....

Metlink are applying a bunch of discounts and free transfers between Metlink services, and I'm assuming its being done as "default"

I'm guessing that snapper/metlink have said to commercial services "if you want to join us, you will have to foot the costs of developing the system to allow discrimination between buses that get discounts and those that don't" and the Flyer have said "nah too expensive"

This was the response provided by a Wellingon Regional Councillor when asked about it

"Integrating non-Metlink providers into the Metlink Snapper system is made difficult by the fact that commercial operators have different fare structures than Metlink – i.e. what happens when you transfer from a Metlink Bus to an Airport Flyer in the offpeak – does the free fare transfer apply? Does the 25% off peak discount apply? At the moment the answer to those two questions is “No” because these are not services to which the NZTA and Regional Council transport subsidies apply. "

Ah that's interesting thanks. So skipping Snapper altogether is easier than answering/programming the tough questions.

I hope they offer some sort of stored value card or accept credit cards. Airport transfers from the train are the only reason I have a snapper card

MikeAqua

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#2052025 9-Jul-2018 14:04

I'm quite impressed by the councillor's response. Seemingly well informed and concise.

However, this is a bit of a debacle. It's in the public interest for these services to integrate with other services and for payment to be easy so mre people use the services.

I frequently use the bus system for business travel. It's easy. I have a 'work' snapper card, which I load with my work credit card. That's one receipt per month to reconcile, code etc.

If the Airport flyer goes cash only, I'll stop using it for work.

If it goes credit/debit card, I'd have to look at the admin burden of coding a couple of dozen transaction per month, vs using taxis and my taxi card and just coding one monthly statement.

Bring on the national system, but until then. I like Snapper.

Mike

Stu1

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#2052033 9-Jul-2018 14:15

I thought NZ bus contract expires in December and Skybus were interested in the contract.Sky bus is great in. Auckland hope they can make work here as well

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