Daran Ponter: Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair talks doubts to National Ticketing System for public transport

Public transport users in the Capital can start using debit and credit cards and phones on buses and trains - from next March.

Greater Wellington Regional Council will introduce contactless payments - at a cost of 5.5 million dollars. 

It's jumping the gun on the Government National Ticketing System, scheduled for mid-2027. 

Council Chair Daran Ponter told Ryan Bridge they don't trust the timeline. 
 
He says he's sick of telling Wellington commuters they can't have something that's available in Auckland and Australia.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wellington is getting ready to ditch the Snapper cards. This
is to get on your public transport, on your buses instead,
you'll just need to tap and go with your debit
card or maybe your phone. It comes after the roll
out of the separate national ticketing solution that's been delayed
again sixteen years after first getting sign off. Do you
believe that? Of course you do. It's only just reached

(00:21):
christ Church and the capital is just sick of waiting apparently.
Darren Ponter is Chair of Greater Wellington Regional Council with
me tonight, Darren, good evening, good evening. What's wrong with Snapper?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
There's nothing wrong with Snapper immediately, but it is now
because we have been waiting so long, it is now
end of life. It is now a product that is
soon not to be supported by the vendor, which means
that if it falls over, we don't have any basis
to collect fares. That puts us at extreme risk. And
this credit debit card system is basically an insurance policy

(00:56):
for us.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Now, why isn't it the main policy? Why can't you
use a qui debit card tap and go thing anyway?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, we probably would have, but as you said it
started sixteen years ago, this conversation, and I suppose you know.
The flip side to this is I am certainly sick
of telling Wellingtonians that they can't have what Auckland has
and what they can get when they get off the
plane in Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney. It has just got ridiculous.
And so we have made the call to lay out

(01:26):
a bit of money ourselves and get this system in
place in Willington by the thirtieth of March this year.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
How much does it cost to enable it to tap?
You have credit card, you debit cards, So that's that's going.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
To cost us five point five million dollars is a
one off, a little bit as a one up payment
and for the initial period that we'll have it. Remember,
the next ticketing system will hopefully still roll in in
about two years time. It will have some of the
technology that we are already going to deploy in advance.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Why do we need a national ticketing system? You know
everyone Well, most people have got a credit card, a
debit card or a phone that they can tap and
go with.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yep, and quite a lot don't and quite a lot
never never will have children, people with concession passes, community
services cards, et cetera. But even then, even if you've
got a credit card, you need some sophistication in the
back end to be able to tell the credit card, oh,
that person is a half fair, or that person is

(02:28):
a full fair, or that person gets a particular type
of discard, et cetera. And that's all about the back end.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
What proportion of bus users or public transport users in
Willington use cash at the moment.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
A very small number, about three percent, I think the
last time I looked, certainly on some services we've taken
cash off all together now, so on our express services
into the city you can only use the Snapper card
at this stage.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Right, do you think we'll have this national ticketing system
up in place before you guys all get fired.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm not beating on it. I've been asking every every
now and then, I ask how long away is the
next ticketing I'm always told in irrespective of when it was,
it's two years away. So ask me that again in
a year's time, and yats, it will probably still be
two years away.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
And it may not be you. I'm asking, Darren, Thank
you dark Darren Font, chair of Greater Wellington Regional Council.
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to
news talks.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio