Why is Wellington still waiting for a universal public transport smartcard?

Wednesday, 9 May 2018

To move seamlessly between the Wellington region's buses, trains and ferries, the average commuter has to weigh themselves down with all sorts of plastic, cardboard and cash.

OPINION: Wellington is crying out for a transport game-changer. So why are its officials dragging the chain on a solution that has been sitting under their noses for years?

It's bordering on farcical that commuters across the Wellington region still don't have an electronic smartcard they can use to pay and transfer seamlessly across all trains, buses and ferries.

If transport officials are serious about wanting to get Wellington moving then they will push harder to introduce integrated ticketing. (File photo)

We're not talking alien technology here. Commuters in Sydney, Melbourne, London, New York, Hong Kong and Vancouver (to name just a few) all carry such magical cards in their wallets. My God, even the transport quagmire that is Auckland has figured this one out.

More than 11,000 commuters take the train into and out of Wellington on a typical workday. None of them are travelling on steam-powered locomotives, yet all have to get paper tickets clipped like they're riding the Kingston Flyer.

If Wellington could somehow harness smartcard technology then it would transform what is currently a good-enough-to-use public transport system into a world-class network that a decent chunk of the 20,000 or so motorists who flood the capital's urban motorway most mornings might look at and say, 'you know what, I'll give that a go'.

But it's hard to be optimistic when the Greater Wellington Regional Council and New Zealand Transport Agency keep shifting the goalposts on Wellington's integrated ticketing project, which is what they call it in the halls of transport power.

It's been a topic on local councillors lips since at least the early 2000s, and since then it's always just been 'a few years away' from implementation.

The regional council earmarked about $39 million for integrated ticketing back in 2012, with conventional wisdom at the time being that we would be close to, if not already, using these smartcards by now.

More buses across the Wellington region will soon be accepting Snapper cards. but, alas, commuters still won't be able to jump from the bus to a train and keep using it. (File photo)

Wellington's cards were supposed to arrive hot on the heels of Aucklands Hop card, which appeared in 2011. The idea was that both cities would share the same back-office support system so Wellington's cards could work in Auckland, and vica versa.

But disagreements between local and central government about the best way forward in Wellington, coupled with squabbles between the company's competing to provide Auckland's network saw things get well and truly bogged down.

As Aucklanders use their Hop cards to move seamlessly from train to bus to ferry, Wellingtonians still dream of such convenience.

Integrated ticketing currently sits at number 22 on Greater Wellington's priority list. This is despite public submitters ranking it in the top three of their wish list during a recent round of public consultation.

The current best guess for when it might happen is (surprise, surprise) a few years away in 2020.

When will Wellington commuters finally be able to trade in all these various methods of payment for a universal smartcard? Maybe in a few years - fingers crossed.

The regional council has, at least, attempted to address the universal smartcard void by extending the Snapper payment card - already a popular product in Wellington - to all of the region's buses from July, and introduce free bus-to-bus transfers when using Snapper.

The council's hands are also tied, to a degree, by the Transport Agency, which will be contributing a decent amount of taxpayer dosh to integrated ticketing in Wellington, and as such, is dictating the project's pace.

Greater Wellington's chairman Chris Laidlaw and its transport leader Barbara Donaldson need to find their voice on this issue and maybe bang a few desks at NZTA to get things moving. Shifting it up the priority list would help, even if only to send a message to the Beehive.

Now would also be the time as new Transport Minister Phil Twyford has clearly signalled his intent to the lift the quality of commuter rail across the country, especially in Wellington where it's looking like he'll deliver a long-awaited light rail network in the not-too-distant-future.

If he's truly committed to the cause then he'll get the message on integrated ticketing and sort this mess out.

* Michael Forbes is a Wellington journalist who has covered transport and local government issues.