Wellington public transport officials are exploring ways to introduce contactless payments "as soon as possible" as delays to the beleaguered $1.4 billion Motu Move national ticketing system stretch into 2027.
The capital's desire to integrate contactless payments — such as Paywave-type cards and smartphone wallets — into its existing system comes amid the announcement of an extra year of delays in completing Motu Move, the $1.4 billion national ticketing system.
A revised regional roll-out plan for NZTA's nationwide payments system remains under development, but was expected to be released later this month.
Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash said the council wanted to explore its options while staying "committed" to a national system.
"We know it can be done next year ... It's not so much a technical challenge for us," he said, when asked if contactless payments could be brought to the existing system.
"If that can be done as part of early works for national ticketing, then that'd be great. If there's another way to do it through the existing provider, we could look at that."
Nash said Greater Wellington was looking at a similar arrangement to Auckland, which introduced contactless through its HOP system last November with NZTA support. The supercity's contactless card readers were expected to be "compatible" with Motu Move.
"If you were Auckland, right now, you'd be thinking, thank goodness we did that, because otherwise they would have been waiting quite a while," he said.
"Exactly the same rationale exists for Auckland's transition to national ticketing, as does for us ... It should be uncontroversial."
It comes just a few weeks after the Government announced the introduction of the NTS (National ticketing system) in 2024. (Source: 1News)
The public and media were told last year that Motu Move would initially be launched in Canterbury at the end of 2024 before later rolling out in Wellington towards late 2025.
But that date was then pushed to 2026 and now stands unclear as officials work to get the beleaguered programme back on track.
Last week, NZTA committed to completing Motu Move by the end of 2027. An independent review into the project was expected to be released later this month.
Nash added: "If you were a public transport user in New Zealand, you could be forgiven for feeling uncertain about the timelines around national ticketing."
Discussions ongoing over interim Snapper solution
Nash said discussions about whether Greater Wellington could introduce contactless payments with its existing provider, Snapper, were still ongoing with NZTA.
He said part of the justification for an interim solution would be to provide greater "assurance" over fare collection during any transition to a different card system, describing contactless payments as an "insurance policy" to protect revenue.
A move to the new national system would eventually mean thousands of Snapper cards in the capital would have to be swapped out for Motu Move cards.
"You do not want to be suddenly having a whole lot of fare revenue lost because of confusion over payment systems," Nash said.
It's unclear whether upgrading Snapper would require replacing card readers across buses and train stations, as happened during Auckland's $26 million contactless rollout.
Nash added: "This is primarily not a technical challenge. It's primarily a challenge of working out a kind of acceptable institutional, administrative and financial arrangement between the partners involved in national ticketing.
"But frankly, that should be a secondary consideration to the needs of public transport users. The overall transport network in the Wellington region, and our economy, which relies on that. When you have big projects, they tend to get a bit of a life of their own.
"And people can become focused on the project rather than the needs of the people that the project is trying to serve."
Christchurch to get a taste of new system in November
As part of revealing delays to the project last week, NZTA announced contactless payments would be rolled out for Canterbury bus and ferry trips from mid-November.
This meant passengers would be able to use contactless debit and credit cards or phone payments to complete trips in Christchurch, Waimakariri and Selwyn.
But there were several caveats with the launch, with the region's existing Metrocard system remaining in use for concessionholders and for people who wanted to use a prepaid card. No Motu Move cards would be distributed as part of the November roll-out.
Unlike other major centres, Metro Canterbury also uses a flat fare system on buses, with all standard trips costing $3.
Environment Canterbury chairperson Craig Pauling said the first phase would provide a simple way to pay alongside cash and the existing card system.
"While Motu Move will ultimately replace our current ticketing system, this first phase will simply provide an additional way to pay alongside Metrocard and cash," he said.
"While the delays in the project have been disappointing, it will be great to finally make travelling on our network easier, especially for casual users and visitors who might not have a Metrocard."
Other features of the system, such as tagging off, Motu Move cards, and concessions, "will be introduced in future phases", a council spokesperson said.
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