13 Jun 2016

Time ticking on free Akl transit card switch

5:54 pm on 13 June 2016

Nearly 90 percent of SuperGold card holders in Auckland needing a new transport card remain at risk of losing their free travel concession at the end of the month.

Just over 10,000 card holders have a valid AT HOP gold card, out of the 136,000 that need to get one in the next three weeks.

The government changed the rules late last year, requiring SuperGold card holders in Auckland to get a special version of the city's electronic travel card, if they wanted to travel free.

Auckland Transport launched a switchover campaign six weeks ago, following an earlier decision by the Ministry of Social Development not to mail out information packs to all affected cardholders due to privacy reasons.

The over-65s who did not have a valid HOP card, with their concession loaded, needed to first buy a card and then begin the sign-up process.

There were approximately 180,000 SuperGold card holders in Auckland, of which 44,149 already had a HOP card with their free travel concession loaded before the switchover campaign began.

Auckland Transport said 10,065 of the new gold AT HOP cards had been processed, and a further 5411 had been bought by people yet to complete the sign-up process.

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