children up to the age of 16-years-old will be able to ride for free on buses, trains, and selected ferries on weekends and public holidays starting 7 September 2019.
Free Weekend Rides For Children On Auckland’s Public Transport
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Well they want to encourage people to use public transport on a regular basis. If you want to take advantage of one off free ride and never use public transport again then you are probably not the target audience.
It's the same issue for senior citizens - to be able to get their free trips, they too need to have HOP card, put money on it, and use it "often enough". That makes it extremely cumbersome for many people. Auckland is apparently the only city in the country with this silly, over-complicated system (according to a letter to the editor in a recent NZ Herald).
You need a gold card+at hop to use free Public transportation as a senior (I helped my in-laws apply for one). That's the only way to verify eligibility.
Would you prefer to carry your id around and get manually checked at the gates each time?
"Auckland is apparently the only city in the country with this silly"
What are you talking about. Heaps of countries have bus/subway cards and you should be grateful that AT hop can be used for bus/rail/ferry compare to Wellington where you need different card for each.At the end of the day no one is forcing you to use AT hop. But to a lot of people queueing up and buying a ticket with cash each time is more cumbersome.
@Zyo: Thats what happened before they implemented this, customer service state you dont need to carry the gold card but the terms still require you to carry id for those situations.
5.10. When using an AT HOP card loaded with a concession, carry a further form of identification to prove your eligibility for that concession.
https://at.govt.nz/about-us/about-this-site/terms-conditions…
@[Deactivated]: They sometimes check student IDs on the train (not always) to make sure you are eligible for the student discount.
Although this is a different story.Obviously if you look 30ish and use a gold card linked athop I reckon they probably would ask for id too.
I had this opinion at first but read thier terms which state.
11.4. For AT HOP cards loaded with SuperGold travel concession: Tagging on and off when you travel is essential because the tag on and off locations allow AT to accurately identify the subsidy that should be applied to the fare and claim that subsidy from the NZ government
https://at.govt.nz/about-us/about-this-site/terms-conditions…
Heaps of countries have bus/subway cards
Yes they do. But I said Auckland is the only city in this country that has such an over-complicated system (in regards to those who qualify for free trips). Senior citizens, including those visiting from other NZ cities, are always complaining about how ridiculously cumbersome it is.
I honestly don't know how you would think a one off age verification is ridiculously complicated for FREE TRAVEL for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.
There are more cumbersome things we@cheapies are willing to do for even one-off freebies, I will just leave it at that.
Min hop top-up is $5, it expires in 6 years of no use. What do you mean by "often enough to keep it active"
I never use public transport and don't qualify for a God Card, so I can only tell you what I've been read from people writing to the NZ Herald and been told by version senior citizens I personally know who do use them - they all say it's a ridiculously cumbersome system, especially for visitors to Auckland. My mother also often uses her friend's HOP cards, in rotation with her own, to keep them "active".
If you read what people say on Herald you will soon come to the conclusion that everything is difficult. As someone who has gone through the application process I find it relatively easy. The benefit is absolutely worth the effort.
People will find anything to complain nowadays. How hard is it to pop to a kiosk in Newmarket station etc to get your ATHop sorted? It's probably the same amount of effort to buy a cash ticket.
Also if you don't use your athop card every 6 YEARS(!) to keep it active why do you buy one in the first place or even care if you are eligible for a free ride. It's like buying a mobile phone only to use a landline then complains about having flat battery when you leave it in the drawer and don't charge it.
It's for children aged 5 to 15, and they need a silly HOP card (which requires money on it and has to be used "often enough" to keep it active).