LONG COMMUTES MADE EASIER
18 August 2008TOM PULLAR-STRECKER
PUBLIC transport providers may have to charge lower prices to passengers who use both the bus and trains or ferries to get to work under a new law that is designed to pave the way for councils in Auckland and Wellington to invest in hi-tech "integrated ticketing systems".
MPs said a key objective of the Public Transport Management Bill was to give regional councils the power to integrate public transport services.
Councils would be able to insist public transport providers used an integrated ticketing system, whether they were contracted by the council and enjoyed subsidies or were purely commercial.
This would ensure passengers could buy a single ticket for journeys that combined bus, train and ferry travel.
It would be left to councils to decide how to apportion the fare among transport operators, but an amendment put forward by Parliament's transport and industrial relations select committee would mean they would need to do this in a "reasonable" manner -- taking into account operators' costs.
The committee approved the bill, despite opposition from the National Party, which labelled it "overly bureaucratic" and said it should not apply to purely commercial transport providers that operated without subsidies.
The bill will now return to Parliament for a second reading.
Auckland Regional Transport Authority has issued a tender for a smartcard-based integrated ticketing system that would let passengers pay for bus, train and ferry travel using a single, contactless smartcard by 2010.
Infratil subsidiary Snapper Services, Australia's Downer EDI and French technology giant Thales are understood to be vying for the deal, which one source estimated could be worth $150 million.
ARTA spokeswoman Sharon Hunter says the winner of the contract will be announced this year, but not till October at the earliest.
Wellington Regional Council is watching the Auckland tender, but could introduce an integrated ticketing system sooner than Auckland by accepting Snapper on the regional rail network.
Ms Hunter says ARTA tendered for a system for Auckland and its selection criteria would not take into account what system might be best for other local authorities.
The Beijing metro has implemented a contactless smartcard payment system developed by Thales in time for the Olympics.
The cards can be used to pay for fares on three of Beijing's seven underground train lines, which carry three million passengers a day. It will later be extended to the rest of the network.
Like the Snapper card and London's Oyster card, Beijing's "city card" can also be used for small purchases in some shops.
©2008 Fairfax New Zealand Limited.
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