Wellington's cuts catch city on Hop

Wellington City Council yesterday announced it was contributing $200,000 to subsidise bus fares.

Capital slashes fares as Auckland doubles price of its new transport cards

As Wellington bus users look forward to low weekend fares in the run-up to Christmas, their Auckland counterparts face a doubling of the price of new Hop cards.

Wellington City Council yesterday announced it was contributing $200,000 to subsidise bus fares, to as little as $1 for one-stage rides, for four weeks from November 28 to encourage more people to use public transport.

"This initiative will provide a welcome boost for retail sales," said Mayor Celia Wade-Brown.

The fares, on yellow Go Wellington buses, will also include $2 for an adult two-stage ride and $1.50 for children travelling across two or three zones.

Auckland Transport is not jumping to match that, saying only that it will "watch the Wellington trial with interest".

Auckland bus, rail and ferry passengers are, meanwhile, on notice of a 100 per cent increase in the initial cost of a Hop card, before credit is loaded on to it, from $5 to $10.

That is to take effect on December 17, a week before Christmas, leading to questions about its timing in the season of goodwill.

An Auckland Transport spokesman said there was no good time to raise prices.

"If it is left until January, we will not be able to effectively communicate with customers who may be on holiday or busy with family activities," he said.

But he confirmed Auckland Transport planned a major promotion of $5 Hop cards while they lasted.

He said the card initially cost $10, when the $100 million electronic ticketing system began its rollout in 2012, but had been discounted to $5 for much of the subsequent period.

Auckland Council infrastructure chairman Mike Lee said the price rise made no sense.

"This is a completely contradictory and muddled strategy ...

"The strategy is to try to capitalise on the enormous investment into this smart card, to get its use almost universal, for a whole lot of good reasons.

"Now they are actually disincentivising people to use it."

Campaign for Better Transport convener Cameron Pitches said the move would be punitive to passengers who lost Hop cards or whose cards were invalidated by Auckland Transport if they failed to tag off at the end of trips or if they had problems with automatic top-ups.