13 years of waiting for bus card

Project NEXT, New Zealand’s troubled plan for a single national public transport card has been quietly delayed yet again.

More than $10 million in funding for the project was part of deferred spending in the Greater Wellington Regional Council annual plan, revealing that the project is running behind schedule.

‘‘The procurement and due-diligence phase of Project NEXT has experienced delays and this work is expected to commence in the new year,’’ the budget said.

Several international software companies that are in the running for the project contract have asked for more time to put together proposals, NZ Transport Agency spokeswoman Rebekah Duffin said.

Some companies had blamed Covid-19 for interrupting schedules, Duffin said.

Snapper is understood to be a major contender for the contract.

Regional councils have now pushed funding forward into the 2021 financial year.

The Transport Agency has been continually vague about the expected launch date of the long-awaited smart card. Officially, the agency says the card will launch first in Wellington in late 2021, even with the new delays.

However, in January, agency operations manager Charles Ronaldson admitted to Stuff a launch date of 2022 was more likely – a possibility which looks even more certain now. A full national rollout won’t be possible until 2026, when Auckland’s AT HOP contract expires.

National integrated ticketing was first floated in 2007 by officials at GWRC, who hoped their new Snapper card system could be rolled out to every bus and train in the country. Thirteen years later, Wellington’s trains still run off paper tickets.

The Transport Agency first joined the project in 2009, offering to pay 51 per cent of the cost of developing the AT HOP smartcard. The plan was to expand the HOP card into Wellington and then the rest of the country. However, in 2015, GWRC rejected the HOP card, claiming it was outdated.

Project NEXT has been held up repeatedly since 2016, and a scathing consultant’s report in October largely blamed the Transport Agency for the delays, citing ‘‘unfocused’’ leadership.