Subscribe to RSSARTA Can Now Celebrate
ARTA has breathed a sigh of relief that integrated ticketing is at last confirmed and to its chosen tender, Thales.- and it should take a bow for its great job on sorting it out and pushing it, against an increasingly vigorous last minute push from Infratil.
ARTA’s Chairman, Rabin Rabindran says, “ARTA is delighted with this news which means we can now move to finalise contract negotiations with our preferred tenderer, a consortium made up of French electronics company, Thales, in partnership with the Bank of New Zealand and Transfield services.
“This is a critical and long awaited next step for Auckland’s public transport system doing away with a multiplicity of ticket options and opening the door to greater ease of use for our customers with a single ticket.
“For ARTA an integrated ticket is a pivotal investment in the future development of Auckland as a city which ultimately wants to stand on the international stage as having world-class levels of transport in all respects”.
“The next step in the process is for ARTA to negotiate the terms of the contract with its preferred tenderer. Once the contract is signed and commercial negotiations finalised, we will be able to provide more details. We expect this to be in the coming month.”
Mr Rabindran says, “We look forward to assisting NZTA as they develop a national integrated ticketing system to benefit public transport users throughout New Zealand through our delivery of an integrated ticket for Aucklanders”.
8 Comments
I hope by “ticket” they mean “smartcard”?
How would a smartcard work with the current ticketing system on the rail network?
Would the train conductors carry such machines on them?
Or will there be prepaid machines located at train stations?
So many questions I know but I’m just too excited!
The current system would be replaced by the smart-card. I assume that we would have ticket gates at Britomart, Newmarket and a few other stations. Elsewhere you could have “tag on posts” like you find on the Docklands Light Rail System in London.
I doubt it. The only staff on the trains would be ticket-checkers.
Yup, machines at all stations would cost a bit though!
I got so excited when i saw your scoop on aucklandtrains this afternoon Jon- thanks for letting us share the news first. Looks like you may have even hurried things along after you let the cat out of the bag.
This is the news I have been waiting for - and suck on that NZBus. After the bus dispute, you can keep your silly inferior Snapper card.
Common sense has happened out in the end.
Love your blog Jon C - you bring us such great news! Your post on Infratil’s last minute attempt the other week was very insightful.
jarbury
Thanks for the reply
What do you mean “tag on post” how would that work?
Ticket barriers on the system would be interesting - the open nature of most of the stations would probably mean a redesign of some of them.
Johans, it’s essentially a smartcard reader without a barrier.
The catch will be that if you do not tag on at that reader, and you arrive at a station with barrier machines, you won’t be able to go through the exit gate without finding a staff member and explaining yourself, as the exit gate won’t let you through.
Freeriders between ‘open’ stations would assumedly be subject to getting caught by inspectors/police and subject to fines, as is often the case overseas.
Not to mention the CCTV that is already installed in most all stations on our network will be monitoring odd behaviour from dishonest patrons. It’s easy enough to police.
Woohoo!!! A thales backed system will Rock! Marvellous news. Well done ARTA. Will really help make travelling by Public transport in Auckland Super!
The possibilities for this thing are awesome. Now the work begins. Getting operators to buy into the (initially) core system gradually sounds like a great idea.
It’ll make the whole system so much more user-friendly.
Thanks Jon for the news.