Wellington commuters will soon be able to use one smart card for all their train and bus trips.
Photo: RNZ / Paloma Migone
Pre-paid Snapper cards have been used on Wellington's buses for more than 14 years, but haven't been able to be used on trains.
Metlink general manager Samantha Gain said a trial on the Johnsonville train line starting in November was a runaway success.
"Four out of every five passengers on the Johnsonville line now pay by Snapper, a big thumbs up and the best possible basis for extending electronic payment throughout the Metlink rail network," she said.
"Within three months more than 80 percent of passengers had adopted the new system. We are delighted by their ringing endorsement of the service."
Greater Wellington chair Daran Ponter said using the same system on trains and buses will enable a smoother transition for Metlink to the future National Ticketing Solution, which aims to introduce a single ticketing solution for public transport in all regions.
"The bottom line is that international and local experience shows that customers increasingly prefer and use cash-free methods of payment for public transport," he said.
"Our focus is on providing better services to passengers and, in our regular customer satisfaction survey, passengers tell us that convenience of paying is an area we can improve on with 68 percent of rail passengers currently satisfied compared to 78 percent with our bus passengers.
"Clearly there's room for improvement here and Snapper on rail will have a profound impact."
Greater Wellington plans to roll out Snapper across its other train lines in November, starting with Kāpiti, then across Hutt Valley, Melling and Wairarapa lines by the end of the month.
The process will require the installation of Snapper validators at all stations.