Snapper Offers $70m Savings On Public Transport In Time For World Cup

Wellington, October 6th, 2009 – Auckland has been offered a $70 million saving against budget in the cost of developing an integrated ticketing system for public transport, one of the region’s key strategies for making public transport more efficient and attractive.

Snapper Services Ltd has invited the Auckland Regional Transport Authority and the New Zealand Transport Agency to come on board with the successfully-established Snapper smartcard system, the dominant smartcard system being adopted by public transport operators and councils in other parts of New Zealand.

Chief Executive Miki Szikszai says Snapper can work with ARTA to have integrated ticketing on 90 percent of Auckland’s buses, trains and ferries by the time the Rugby World Cup kicks off in less than two years.

“ARTA should be congratulated for making integrated ticketing a priority in Auckland. It is the way the world is going, but things have moved very fast since they called for tenders in 2007 to have their own system developed, and set a budget of $135 million,” says Szikszai.

“Snapper is on such a roll, it now makes no sense for ARTA to contemplate incurring the significant costs and risks of developing its own system. Melbourne and Sydney have been going down this route for years with hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns and legal actions, but have yet to get comprehensive systems of the ground.

“The new offer we have made to ARTA today is that they need pay no up-front costs at all. Snapper’s IT systems are up and running and comfortably processing millions of transactions already. We can easily cover Auckland.

“What we are now offering ARTA is an easy, risk free and much less expensive way for Auckland to get into integrated ticketing on public transport, in time for 2011 World Cup, using a robust and proven system.  In Seoul alone the technology we’re using supports 26 million transactions a day through 6,000 metro train gates, 45,000 taxis and 10,000 buses.

“In New Zealand we have already processed 13 million transactions to date at 99.99 percent accuracy and uptake of our system is now expanding rapidly. ”

Mr Szikszai says ARTA could accept the new Snapper offer and still involve its preferred tenderer, the French armaments company Thales, in aspects of the scheme, if it wished.

“It would be good for tourism and for New Zealanders travelling around the country for there to be a system which could be compatible for all public transport smart cards.

Mr Szikszai says Snapper Services has asked for early discussions with ARTA and NZTA.

“We believe what we are offering is in the best of interests of the Auckland region because it removes risks, offers huge cost savings and enables integrated ticketing to be achieved much more quickly than by ARTA going it alone.

“We will give them a seat at the table and an open book approach.”

Other recent developments:

·         Snapper has been approached by two regional authorities to submit regional schemes, including rail solutions.

·         Snapper already works with three different operators in Wellington and one in Whangarei.

·         Two Auckland operators plan to announce their involvement before the end of the month.

·         Snapper is well advanced to complete negotiations with other operators including Ferry, Bus and Taxi operators in the Wellington region.

Miki Szikszai says there are significant financial benefits to ARTA in getting integrated ticketing up and running as soon as possible, making public transport work more efficiently by shortening loading and unloading times, providing valuable new information on public transport usage and raising patronage levels.

“Our new offer will help them achieve all these things more quickly, much more cheaply and with very much less risk.”

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