Phantom bus journey at six times the normal price

A hop card passenger was mistakenly charged. Photo / Natalie Slade

Transport officials are blaming operator error for charging a passenger for a phantom bus trip across Auckland at more than 120km/h.

Allen Hsu was amazed to find that, according to his Hop travel card account with Auckland Transport, he had been whisked by bus from Lynfield to Queen St in a giddying six minutes.

He says he has not been been to Lynfield for several years, and the distance he is supposed to have travelled was more than 13km, meaning the bus would have set a super-fast pace through some of New Zealand's busiest streets.

The Auckland University of Technology business student did catch a 267 bus on February 18.

But he said he did so from Queen St and, although its destination was Lynfield, he left it a short distance away in Wakefield St.

He did that regularly for a discounted student fare of 45c, and was annoyed that on the evening in question, a Hop card machine reader on the bus recorded a charge of $2.70c as he got off.

"I made a complaint to the driver straight away but he refused to do anything," Mr Hsu told the Herald.

Later, when he logged on to his online Hop card account, he found he had been charged $2.70c for a trip in the opposite direction and from the extremity of the 267 bus route.

"It shows that I got on the bus at 19.23 [7.23pm] in The Avenue, opposite Oriana Ave [in Lynfield] and got off the bus on 19.29 [7.29pm] St James Queen St," he said.

"For everyone's common sense, it is impossible that the bus can drive from Lynfield to the city in six minutes."

Mr Hsu said that when he phoned the Hop call centre, the only response was that what happened to him was "not possible".

Although $2.70c was not a large sum, many of his friends had told him of problems using Hop cards, and the incident had shaken his confidence in the system.

Auckland Transport spokeswoman Sharon Hunter last night blamed the incident on a mistake by the bus driver, who she said "punched in the return journey rather than the out journey".

But she could not explain how the incorrect journey could have been recorded as having taken only six minutes.

She said Mr Hsu would be reimbursed.

Asked about the robustness of the Hop system, she said it was rare for such errors to occur.

UN-FARE

* Passenger was charged $2.70 for a trip from Lynfield to Queen St.
* The trip he took was from Queen St to Wakefield St.
* This was a trip he regularly made which cost 45c.