7-day fare cap
Ride with your HOP card to enjoy unlimited travel on AT buses, trains and inner-harbour ferries for no more than $50 a week. Terms apply.
On this page
About the 7-day fare cap
If you travel using your AT HOP card, you won’t spend more than $50 per 7-day period.
The 7-day fare cap applies to buses, trains and inner-harbour ferries. Inner-harbour ferry services include Devonport, Bayswater, Birkenhead and Te Onewa Northcote Point.
You must tag on and off with your registered HOP card for your trip to count towards your $50 cap. Other terms apply.
The 7-day fare cap is not available with contactless payments. Customers paying with a contactless method automatically get the $20 daily fare cap.
How it works
AT HOP cardholders using eligible services automatically qualify. Eligible services are AT buses, trains and inner-harbour ferries.
Tag on to begin your 7-day period and track your progress towards $50. Once you’ve used $50 on your HOP card, travel is free for the rest of your 7-day period.
You do not need to top up your card with $50. Just tag on and travel as normal.
Tag on and off every trip
You must tag on and off correctly for your trip to count towards your $50 cap. Continue to tag on and off once you are getting free travel.
When your 7-day period starts and ends
Your 7-day period starts the next time you complete a trip on an eligible service. All trips completed between then and midnight 7 days later will count towards your $50 cap.
Your next 7-day period starts when you complete your next trip.
For example, you tag on and off your regular bus at 7am on a Wednesday. Your 7-day period starts immediately and ends at midnight the following Tuesday. Your next 7-day period starts when you next tag on and off.
When you’ve met the fare cap
Use $50 of HOP card credit during your 7-day period and you’ll get free travel until the period ends. Remember, you must still tag on and off, even when you are travelling for free.
For example, you’ve spent $49 and have 3 days before your 7-day period ends. You tag on and take a $2 journey. When you tag off you will be charged only $1 as you have reached your $50 cap.
Querying your fare cap spend
Fare cap transaction details in MyAT are coming soon.
Until then, you can view transactions from the previous day each morning. If you have any queries about your transactions, please contact us.
Replaces the daily fare cap and monthly pass
For AT HOP cardholders, the 7-day fare cap replaces the $20 daily fare cap and monthly pass for buses and trains. Ferry monthly passes are still available.
The daily fare cap is available with contactless payments only. Contactless debit cards, credit cards and digital cards are accepted.
Bus and train monthly passes activated by Saturday 20 July can be used until they expire. If you do not activate your pass by 20 July, we will contact you directly to process a refund.
If you have a query about an activated or pending pass, please contact us.
When the fare cap does not apply
Travel will not count towards your $50 cap when:
- an active ferry monthly pass is used for part or all of the journey or
- you’ve travelled on a mix of eligible and ineligible services.
Scenario 1
If a journey involves both eligible and ineligible services, only the eligible services will count towards reaching the cap.
For example, if a customer travels from Ellerslie to Britomart by train and then Downtown to Hobsonville Point by ferry, the fare the customer pays for the train will count towards the cap, but the ferry fare will not count. This is because the Hobsonville Point ferry is a mid-harbour ferry.
Scenario 2
After reaching the cap, if a journey involves both eligible and ineligible services, customers will receive free travel for sections of the trip on eligible services that take place after the ineligible services.
For example, if a customer has reached the cap and travels between Half Moon Bay and Downtown by ferry and then between Downtown and Albany by bus, the fare would be $10.70 each way.
If a customer has reached the cap, then their fare would be:
- Half Moon Bay to Albany: $8.50 (bus travel is free)
- Albany to Half Moon Bay: $10.70 (bus travel is not free).
The Half Moon Bay ferry is not an eligible service because it is a mid-harbour ferry.
Scenario 3
For monthly ferry pass holders, the fare cap does not apply to bus, train or inner-harbour ferry trips that start or end in a zone in which bus, train or ferry travel is included in the monthly ferry pass.
For example, if a customer has an outer-harbour ferry monthly pass that they normally use on the Gulf Harbour ferry and takes a bus from Hibiscus Coast to Warkworth, the bus travel will not count towards reaching the fare cap and the bus travel will not be free once a customer has reached the fare cap as the bus travel started in a zone in which is included in the ferry monthly pass.
Scenario 4
For monthly ferry pass holders, the fare cap does not apply to journeys where the active ferry monthly pass has been used for part of or all of the journey.
For example, if a customer has a mid-harbour ferry monthly pass and takes a ferry from Half Moon Bay to Downtown, then travels by bus to Albany, the bus travel will not count towards reaching the fare cap and the bus travel will not be free once a customer has reached the fare cap.
Contact us
If you have questions about the 7-day fare cap or how it works with your existing monthly pass, please contact us.