Auckland Transport’s decision announced today is a very welcome Christmas bonus for residents for whom the Waiheke Local Board has been advocating for many months.

“The decision to provide integrated fares for those who use the AT HOP cards to pay for their ferry tickets marks the first step in what needs to be a staged improvement in the provision of equitable fares for Waiheke Island public transport users” says Waiheke Local Board chair Cath Handley.

Those who will benefit are either those who use the ferries on an occasional basis and those who cannot afford to buy multi-trip tickets. With a much lower average houseful income than Aucklanders as a whole this benefit will be highly valued.

However, commuters and other frequent ferry travellers generally pre-purchase multi-trip tickets and those ticket types are not covered in the new simplified fares for ferry users. The reason is that the multi-tickets are sold exclusively by Fullers to their customers and are currently outside Auckland Transport’s AT HOP ticketing technology.

“Let’s hope that the ferry company will now work closely with Auckland Transport to bring the rest of the residents’ tickets into this scheme” Handley said. It’s a great start and I’m grateful to both Fullers, Auckland Transport and council for taking this critical first step.”

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