You can now pay for public transport in Auckland with your debit card or phone and from next month, the Christchurch airport bus is jumping on board. It’s the beginning of a long-awaited transformation of New Zealand’s public transport. 

New Zealand’s public transport card collectors have had static collections for a while. A Hop card for Auckland. A Snapper card for Wellington. A Metro card in Canterbury. A Bee card for pretty much everywhere else. But from the start of next year, the first users will get their hands on Aotearoa’s newest public transport card: Motu Move. By the time it’s fully rolled out, this card will be compatible with all public transport systems around the country. Here’s what you need to know. 

What is Motu Move? 

It’s the slightly more exciting name for the implementation of the National Ticketing System, a government-funded upgrade to all of New Zealand’s payment systems for public transport: buses, trains and ferries. There are going to be new Motu Move cards, which will be compatible with public transport networks around the country. If you’re aesthetically inclined, the designs released so far are a fresh minty colour, a contrast to Snapper’s bright red and Hop’s dour navy. The cards will work similarly to existing transport cards in New Zealand – you can load money onto them, then tag on and off – except that they can be used anywhere in the country. 

Why are we getting a new card-based system when I’ve stopped carrying my wallet because I use Google Pay or Apple Pay for everything? 

The Motu Move system isn’t just new cards! It’s also the readers and sensors for payment, which will be able to accept contactless payments via debit and credit cards or phones as well as Motu Move cards. So even if you don’t have a card, you’ll be able to arrive in a new New Zealand city and pay for public transport, as long as your debit card has payWave, or you have Apple/Google Pay on your smartwatch/phone. In Auckland, the option to pay for public transport in this way is already in place, although it’s still based on Hop cards and will be fully integrated into the Motu Move system by the end of the rollout. Once they’re available in your area, it might still be worth getting a Motu Move card though – kids usually don’t have debit cards, for example, and the cards can be loaded with concessions that you apply for.

That sounds great – when will I get my new card? 

Well, you might be waiting a while yet. The first pilot of the Motu Move system will be running on the 29 bus in Christchurch from December, but the cards won’t be released until the system is rolled out across Timaru and Temuka in early 2025. The rest of the country will slowly follow. Auckland Council, Environment Canterbury and Greater Wellington have all been key partners; the regional councils that use the Bee Card (Otago, Southland, Manawatū, Waikato, Northland, Taranaki, Nelson, Gisborne, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay) are all involved too. 

On current schedules, the rollout will go roughly region by region – from Timaru and Temuka to the rest of Canterbury, ending in Otago at the end of 2026.  

This big change all sounds kinda fancy – how much is it costing the government? 

Well actually, New Zealand is relatively behind other cities; Sydney has had the option to pay for public transport with a bank card for years; London, Singapore and Vancouver do, too. 

The National Ticketing Solution has been expensive. Funded by the Land Transport Fund, it has a budget of $1.3bn, although that is spread out over 14 years. The key technology is being provided by US company Cubic Transportation Systems, which has worked on the transport payment systems in New York, London and Sydney, among dozens of others. 

Because systems need to be updated regularly, the government’s business case calculated that it would cost $785m to maintain the existing transport payment systems over that time anyway. And creating an integrated national system will have other benefits. 

Like… what benefits? 

Well, ultimately, it’ll hopefully result in more people using public transport, with all the benefits that come along with that: less traffic and congestion, fewer emissions and less air pollution, more efficient use of public transport. There could also be benefits in making buses interchangeable between regions; if a big event is happening in Palmerston North, some of Wellington’s buses could be seconded to another area, and everyone could pay as normal. 

Plus, it’s convenient: it’ll be easy for anyone coming from Auckland to get the bus from the airport in Christchurch, without having to scurry around the fluorescent corridors of the airport looking for a local card. If you want a more detailed look at the benefits, you can read the full business case from 2022 here. 

Will transport fees change? 

Councils will still set their own fees, and their own concessions. Because the Motu Move system is being paid for by central government, it shouldn’t be a contributing cause in making fees go up otherwise. However, unrelated to the change in systems, Waka Kotahi/NZTA has just asked local transport authorities to hit higher revenue targets, meaning price hikes could be on the way.

Will I still be able to pay for transport with cash?

Cash is still an important way to pay for lots of people, but Environment Canterbury, at least, has announced that once Motu Move is fully rolled out, it will no longer be accepting cash on its services. The press release said this was to improve staff welfare, without the risk of cash being held on buses. Currently, 12% of trips on Christchurch buses are paid for in cash.  This follows Auckland Transport, which hasn’t accepted cash on its services since the pandemic broke out in 2020. Greater Wellington, where currently just 4% of trips are paid for with cash, has also decided to phase out cash payments. 

Is there anything fun we know about the Motu Move cards? Will there be keychains? 

No keychains, sadly – the technology won’t work properly at a smaller scale. The contactless technology is supplied by MasterCard, so the new system is firmly in the pocket of Big Card. There’s also just going to be one design for now, to keep it easy to recognise.