Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
15 SEPTEMBER 2017

Auckland’s Hop Card Ripping Off Seniors

Auckland Transport’s Hop card has been a bungled failure from the outset and the SuperGold Card should have been retained for off-peak travel, says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament, Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“More than 14 months after Seniors were forcefully ‘tied’ to the Hop card it’s been revealed that a rule applies that says if the money on the card is not used within two months, then it becomes null and void and the card is useless.

“To get their money back, everyone, including Seniors have to beg Auckland Transport to re-load it.

“Besides being seriously inconvenienced, many Seniors are probably losing money. How much money is Auckland Transport collecting from this?

“Auckland Transport forced Seniors to get new cards and pay $15 for them; they wasted thousands of dollars issuing blue Hop cards that had to be cancelled; they forced Seniors to tag on and off public transport which was not required before; they blacklisted and cancelled cards and now they’re cancelling funds on the card.

“All of this would have been avoided had the free SuperGold Card been retained for off-peak travel.

“Auckland Transport did all this under the instructions of the National government. They did not have the sense to defy the government’s attempt to undermine the SuperGold Card.

“New Zealand First plans to introduce a new high tech SuperGold Card, and we’ll make sure it can be used for their free off-peak seats on public transport.

“Seniors will be able to load cash on to their new generation card, collect loyalty points and potentially save $800 and $1000 a year through no bank fees and retail discounts,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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