Brisbane has recently introduced a smart card bus ticketing system like Wellington’s Snapper and we have been using it every day while we have been here because it is so familiar and convenient. It is called the Go card and it’s a stored value card just like Snapper.
As in Wellington, you “tag on” with the [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘Snapper card’
December 31, 2008
Some lessons for Go Wellington’s Snapper from Brisbane’s equivalent, but Wellington’s buses better overall. Sad about Auckland.
October 20, 2008
“Error! Please check the terminal!”
I was too soon in pronouncing Snapper is snapping snappily. On my No 3 home tonight, the Snapper reader was completely misfunctional and announced every few seconds: “Error! Please check the terminal!” A series of insistent beeps followed each time.
The driver was telling everyone with a Snapper card (at least half those boarding) not to [...]
August 12, 2008
Consumer NZ says Snapper is covered by Consumer Guarantees Act
BREAKING NEWS
Consumer NZ (formerly the Consumers Institute) is adamant that the new Snapper card replacing 10-trip tickets on Go Wellington buses is covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act, as I had thought.
Many passengers trying to use Snapper on Go Wellington buses have been told by the driver they have to pay cash when the bus [...]
August 6, 2008
Geek alert. All is (not quite) well! Snapper uses Linux, not Microsoft! For the buses but not registering
STOP PRESS!
Should geeks rejoice? Onboard Wellington bus Snapper terminals use Linux! Not Microsoft! NZ Bus has told me this today after commenter UK Kiwi posted on this blog that he thought he heard the Microsoft Vista jingle coming from a Snapper terminal on his Go Wellington bus:
Said UK Kiwi: My bus this morning encountered [...]
August 6, 2008
Bus company responds to Snapper criticism
NZ Bus chief executive Bruce Emson has sent me a detailed email response to my comments about the new Snapper smart card’s introductory problems coming under the Consumer Guarantees Act, and problems with the introduction of the card on Wellington buses. I am publishing it in full while I consider the implications. [...]
August 4, 2008
Update: Snapper and new trolley buses
Many Snapper bugs seem to have been fixed by today. Of the four Go Wellington buses I caught, Snapper was working on all. In particular, the 7.35am No 17 was Snapper-enabled for the first time in weeks, and more than 20 passengers on it had Snapper cards that worked. I have not seen so many [...]
August 2, 2008
Go Wellington should honour Consumer Guarantees Act and not force passengers to pay cash if Snapper doesn’t work
Go Wellington seems in clear breach of the Consumer Guarantees Act by making bus passengers pay with cash when the new, heavily promoted Snapper card refuses to work because of technical issues that seem to be common with its introduction.
The act requires that goods and services be fit for their advertised purpose, but Go Wellington [...]
July 22, 2008
Snapper will replace Go Wellington 10-trip tickets from August 29, bus company says
EXCLUSIVE: Breaking news
Adult 10-trip tickets for Go Wellington buses will not be sold after August 29, and will not be accepted by drivers from December 1 when the new Snapper smart cards will completely replace them.
NZ Bus chief executive Bruce Emson reveals this in an email to me in response to questions I put to [...]
July 19, 2008
Bus breaks down, driver blames Snapper as passengers get off and walk
Further to my item yesterday on Morning Report running a snow job about Go Wellington’s new Snapper card system “working perfectly,” I’ve just got off a bus that broke down and the driver blamed it on the Snapper equipment overloading the bus circuits.
We took the bus to town for a film festival movie (One Hundred [...]
July 18, 2008
Morning Report falls for Snapper snow job
Travelling into town today on a Route 17 bus with the Snapper readers disabled, I listened to a Morning Report journalist saying how good this system is and how the bugs have been ironed out of it. I doubt she is a bus user.
The reporter contacted me earlier this week as a result of reading [...]
July 12, 2008
Snapper card becomes city-wide on Go Wellington buses from Monday, but doesn’t seem properly planned
The Snapper smart cards that have been trialled on Go Wellington’s Route 17 buses since April are being introduced across the Go Wellington system from Monday, but it doesn’t seem to have been that well thought-through.
As one of the regular No 17 users given the chance to trial Snapper, I have received an email saying [...]
May 22, 2008
Snapper snaps too much
Without wanting to get too snappy over Snapper, I have found another flaw. The system it uses can deduct more than it should when you use the card to pay for your bus fare.
Having successfully got my Snapper card to work with the scanners on the Route 17 bus this week, I went online to [...]
May 20, 2008
Snapper bites! At long last. But unless the bugs are fixed, there is chaos ahead on the buses
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 [...]
May 10, 2008
Updates: Saturday May 10
Snapped
Trying my gifted trial Snapper smart card for the third time yesterday, it again refused to work. The scanner at the front door of the 7.35am Route 17 bus told me, five times, to “try again” before I gave up. As I said, it is embarrassing that my card won’t work, because the scanner tells [...]
May 7, 2008
Snapper not snapping
My attempts to use the Snapper Card on the No 17 bus have come to nought so far.
On Monday, when I waved it by the scanner at the front door of the 7.35am, the scanner flashed a red cross and told me to try again (yes, the thing talks to you). With a queue behind, [...]
