AT eyes expanding Hop card's uses

If the proposal goes ahead, Hop users would be able to tag to pay at Auckland libraries and swimming pools too. Photo / Dean Purcell

Transport agency researches public appetite for integrated payment system and raises question of shared data

Auckland Transport is considering extending the reach of its $100 million Hop ticketing system to council services such as libraries and swimming pools.

It is also sounding out Aucklanders over whether they would be prepared for information the system collects about them to be shared among council organisations.

Those ideas have been raised with a research panel of Auckland residents, offering them chances to be in the draw for Christmas gift cards for participating in a survey.

A panel member told the Herald the questionnaire had asked "if we'd be happy to use our Hop card to access other Auckland Council services like pools, libraries, rec centres."

She said panellists were also asked if they would agree to their data being shared across council organisations.

"As a person who refuses to register my Hop card because I hate sharing data, I wasn't wildly positive about this," she said.

An Auckland Transport spokesman said the survey, which was supposed to be confidential, was part of "a very high-level, early investigation into the possible use of the Hop card for other council services".

"This is just at a conceptual level at the moment and may not go anywhere," he said.

He promised if the proposal were to go further, a full investigation would cover matters including the privacy of Hop card holders, and "opt out" provisions for those not wanting to use it other than for public transport trips.

The spokesman said it was no secret that Auckland Transport was also considering extending Hop card coverage to parking services, although no decisions had been made about that.

About 680,000 Hop cards had been issued so far, of which 265,000 were used in the past month.

The payment system was introduced to the city's trains in late-2012 and rolled out to most bus fleets from mid-2013 after a difficult tendering process interrupted by a threat of legal action by rival card-provider Snapper Services.

But the system has won praise from the new Australian management of Auckland's airport bus services, and promoters of a $33.5 million shared cycling and pedestrian path across the harbour bridge hope to use it to collect tolls from users.

Even so, Auckland Transport came under fire in 2013 for claiming a right to pass personal information about users to third parties unless specifically asked not to do so.

One woman, who was denied a refund on credit stored on an unregistered card which Auckland Transport blocked for an alleged failure to tag off at the end of trips, wondered how many users were aware that the council organisation could pass on information about where they lived and "their every movement across the public transport network".