To my astonishment, my trial Snapper smart card worked when I flashed it at the scanner on the Route 17 bus this morning.
I’d given up on it, having been embarrassed by the scanner repeatedly rejecting the card each time I’d tried to use it since the nice folk at Infratil gave it to me at the start of the month.
But this morning, I was catching the 7.50am rather than the 7.35am (which has become quite unreliable in the past week), so I decided to try my Snapper one last time, in case the problem was the scanner on the 7.35am rather than the card itself.
And it worked! Instead of the big red cross and the barked command to try again, I got a green circle and a message reminding me to “tag” it again as I got off.
There are obviously some serious technical issues with this system, though. Two stops along, the scanner refused to accept a card presented by another passenger, and we were delayed for some time while he dug through his pockets to find his good, old-fashioned, reliable 10-trip ticket.
Snapper is meant to speed bus services up, not slow them down. Go Wellington intends to replace the 10-trip tickets with Snapper across all its routes from next month. I suspect the result will be chaos as some scanners reject the cards and others accept them, with no rhyme nor reason.
As I wrote on May 2, 200 regular Route 17 users have been given these credit-card sized red “smart cards” to trial, with a $60 credit. Snapper uses the same technology as the Octopus card in Hong Kong and the Oyster card in London, and the fishy name has been chosen deliberately to maintain the nautical theme.
As you get on and off, you flash the card past the scanners installed at the front and rear doors of the bus, and the cost of the fare (at 20 per cent off the cash price) is deducted from the cash value stored in the card. In theory but rarely in practice, in my experience.
Getting passengers used to swiping the card on leaving the bus will not be easy, I suspect. But if you don’t swipe on leaving, you are charged the maximum fare for the route you’ve travelled on, even if you only go one zone.
8 Comments
May 20, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I am impressed that they are doing a proper trial and making adjustments. I wonder what the criteria are for success, and whether they will drop Snapper if they can’t get it to work right? It’s not the only game in town for stored-value cards, that’s for sure.
May 20, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Damn we are behind the times, this system has been in operation in Korea for years. You could deduct money directly from your credit card or add it to your cellphone bill.
O for awesome!
May 21, 2008 at 3:30 am
The Oyster system here in London generally works fine, but normally you need to actually press the card AGAINST the scanner rather than simply “flashing” the card past the scanner. Could the problem with the Snapper be user error? Also, other security/bank cards can sometimes interfere with the Oyster if you keep them in the same wallet.
May 21, 2008 at 9:45 am
Presumably if the bus company scanner refuses to read the bus company issued card then you get to ride for free. Why would you need to present some other form of ticket?
[Poneke says: This was something I wondered yesterday when the other passenger's Snapper would not work. The driver clearly expected the trip still to be paid for, and waited till the passenger found a 10-trip ticket. Each time my Snapper failed to work, at least I had my Gold Pass to show. My biggest worry is what happens when the Snapper replaces the Gold Pass later this year, and fails to work. What if I have no cash? Am I refused travel? One assumes some policy will be developed.]
May 21, 2008 at 10:27 am
I had heard that one of the Operating policies that stagecoach used to have ( and I am assuming the NZ bus have not changed it). was that in the case of a bus driver not being able to give change to a customer ( e.g $50 note tendered or the like), the policy is to record the name and address of the customer and then send them a bill for the trip,
I would assume that something like this will be implemented for the times when Snappers will not snap ?
May 21, 2008 at 10:37 am
>What if I have no cash? Am I refused travel? One assumes some policy will be developed.
I’m not a lawyer, but I’d imagine that by the bus company accepting your money when you’ve “topped up” your card, then you have a contract with the bus company to provide travel services when you present the card. Your obligation is to present it, it is up to them to process it.
Economically… providing free travel isn’t the end of the world for the bus company and incents them to make their fare processing technology work.
May 21, 2008 at 11:47 am
[...] Poneke has been writing some great things on the buses, and on petrol prices. Thank goodness he’s back. [...]
May 21, 2008 at 12:19 pm
The problem I see, davidp, is that once it become widely known certain failure modes give you a free trip, there is a segment of the community who would trade in bodged cards for guaranteed free travel.
That’s one of the great advantages of cash, tokens and paper tickets over electronic stored payment systems – failure is rare (no change) and self limiting (the kind of person who defrauds the bus company is unlikely to regularly carry a $50 note).