Auckland's mayor has criticised a council agency for not doing a good enough job of convincing the public of the benefits of the city's $100 million public transport ticketing system.
Auckland Transport acknowledges it needs to do better after taking two days last week to explain a minor delay the next stage of the AT Hop system.
Photo: RNZ
The rollout to North Shore buses was put on hold while a minor glitch was fixed.
Fliers were given to passengers but it took two days to finalise a basic media statement.
Mayor Len Brown says even before that, he had told the agency he was unhappy with its communcation about the introduction of AT Hop.
He says the agency is failing to sell the bigger story about the benefits of a single regionwide passenger transport ticket.
Auckland Transport chair Lester Levy says he and the board had already demanded more openness and transparency and he will be pursuing the matter with management.
Mr Levy has described the communications job as not transparent enough, too conservative and somewhat defensive.
