Auckland Transport: Hop & Snapper. Whats the real issue

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Auckland Transport: Hop & Snapper. Whats the real issue

oxnsox

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# 107829 20-Aug-2012 17:10

In the news again this morning that Snapper is having trouble integrating with the Thales supplied systems in Auckland.

I have to admit I haven't followed this too closely but what's the real issue here?

Surely it's not all to do with proprietary solutions, with the bigger player (Thales) not playing ball with Snapper to get a working integrated solution. Is it simply politics, or did Snapper just get it wrong when they signed up??

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# 674669 20-Aug-2012 17:14

There is a lot to this issue, and plenty that can't be said here.

One thing worth also remembering is that despite everybody saying the Thales system is already to go, neither or Snapper or Thales are providing the hardware for non NZ Bus buses. No buses other than those with Snapper now have any hardware installed yet. Why is nobody in the media asking why?

oxnsox

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# 674678 20-Aug-2012 17:30

OK that helps.... and of course it doesn't.

I suspected there would be an element of this covered by commercial sensitivities and NDA's, but was hoping there would be a bit more public information given it's a publicly funded process.

lucky015

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# 674688 20-Aug-2012 17:53

My local bus company refuses to upgrade to allow for use of the cards, To me and half of the people on the North Shore of Auckland it renders the entire system useless and laughable.

ajobbins

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# 674690 20-Aug-2012 17:55

lucky015: My local bus company refuses to upgrade to allow for use of the cards, To me and half of the people on the North Shore of Auckland it renders the entire system useless and laughable.

Ritchies?

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lucky015

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# 674694 20-Aug-2012 18:01

ajobbins:
lucky015: My local bus company refuses to upgrade to allow for use of the cards, To me and half of the people on the North Shore of Auckland it renders the entire system useless and laughable.

Ritchies?

I think they support it, I was referring to Birkenhead Transport.

They cover a surprising portion of the North Shore as well as a few other routes.

Being in Glenfield I cant always predict who's bus I will end up catching and a lot of them turn out to be Birkenhead Transport buses so these prepaid cards are not an option for me.

ajobbins

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# 674704 20-Aug-2012 18:29

lucky015:
ajobbins:
lucky015: My local bus company refuses to upgrade to allow for use of the cards, To me and half of the people on the North Shore of Auckland it renders the entire system useless and laughable.

Ritchies?

I think they support it, I was referring to Birkenhead Transport.

They cover a surprising portion of the North Shore as well as a few other routes.

Being in Glenfield I cant always predict who's bus I will end up catching and a lot of them turn out to be Birkenhead Transport buses so these prepaid cards are not an option for me.

Ah. I haven't lived in Auckland now for ~9 months, but back then North Star were the only North Shore buses to have HOP - Because they are part of NZ Bus (Owned by Infratil, which also owns Snapper)

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freitasm

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# 674705 20-Aug-2012 18:31

I'd love to use Snapper on buses here in Wellington but the company serving Johnsonville (Newlands Coach Service) refuses to replace their in-home system with Snapper.

In Auckland the thing is even worse, I hear.

ajobbins

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# 674706 20-Aug-2012 18:32

Is www.thalesgroup.com offline for everyone else?

Do you want a company that can't even keep their website up to be running your bus ticketing?

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freitasm

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# 674707 20-Aug-2012 18:35

ajobbins: Is www.thalesgroup.com offline for everyone else?

Do you want a company that can't even keep their website up to be running your bus ticketing?

ROFL. Auckland is full of #fail. Years ago they said "NO" to TelstraClear and now they can't have a cable network service. Now they say "NO" to Snapper.

eXDee

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# 674710 20-Aug-2012 18:40

Ha, this makes me thankful that Hamilton has a single unified busit card system, despite some routes being operated by Pavlovich but most being GoBus.

johnr

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# 674711 20-Aug-2012 18:41

Guess we should all go back to cash

freitasm

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# 674712 20-Aug-2012 18:43

johnr: Guess we should all go back to cash

No, Auckland should stop being full of crap and adopt a solution that works. Snapper does it really well, but why get something good for the citizenry if politics can screw up everything?

ajobbins

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# 674713 20-Aug-2012 18:43

I used to get an 'integrated' North Shore ticket. The Northern Pass.

Unlimited travel on any North Shore services any time, any operator.

The piece of paper wasn't very 'smart' tho - but it worked!

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eXDee

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# 674715 20-Aug-2012 18:50

Today i learned auckland (and possibly wellington?) bus services are complicated =/
I sort of assumed each region just had a single card that worked for everywhere in the region, and figured there wouldn't be more than a couple of companies operating the routes. Seems this is far from reality.

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# 674718 20-Aug-2012 18:55

Observing from the outside, the Snapper solution makes money for NZBus. Ie. load your card, they hold your cash until it is "spent".

Therefore the Snapper guys are doing what Birkenhead and Newland do for their own gain (just at a larger nicer scale) and none of it is interoperable.

Hence the Thales contract to try and make everything work together. Unfortunately this won't succeed until they push everyone to a single standard. This won't happen until they re-tender the bus services and add it to the contract. Who knows when this will be.

Jon

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