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
New in MyAT: check your progress toward free travel
Track your progress toward the $50 fare cap and find out when you can travel free with our new transaction history feature.
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
Tag on to begin your 7-day period. Once you've used $50 on your HOP card, travel is free for the rest of your 7-day period.
You don't have to top up $50 to begin. You can top up your normal amount, as long as you have enough credit for your journey.
AT HOP cardholders travelling on AT buses, trains and inner-harbour ferries automatically qualify for the cap. You do not have to apply or opt in.
Tag on and off every trip
You must tag on and off 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 when 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 after that.
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.
Tracking your progress toward the cap
In your MyAT transaction history, you can now see your progress toward the $50 7-day fare cap. This includes how much you’ve spent so far and when your 7-day period will end.
Once you’ve met the $50 cap, your status will update to let you know when your free travel period expires.
When you reach the fare cap
Once you reach $50, you can travel free until your 7-day period ends. If you're not sure when this is, check your status in MyAT.
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.
Remember, you must still tag on and off, even when you are travelling for free.
Querying your fare cap spend
You can view transactions from the previous day each morning in MyAT. If you have any queries about your transactions, please contact us.
Replacing 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 $20 daily fare cap is now available for contactless payments only. Contactless debit cards, credit cards and digital cards are accepted.
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: 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. This is because the Hobsonville Point ferry is a mid-harbour ferry.
Scenario 2
For monthly ferry pass holders, the fare cap does not apply to journeys where the ferry monthly pass has been used for part of or all of the journey.
For example: 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 trip will not count towards reaching the fare cap, and will not be free once the customer has reached the fare cap.
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 the zone in which travel is included in the monthly ferry pass.
For example: a customer has an outer-harbour ferry monthly pass that they normally use on the Gulf Harbour ferry. Today, they take a bus from Hibiscus Coast to Warkworth. The bus trip will not count toward the fare cap and will not be free once the customer has reached the fare cap, because it started in a zone which is included in the ferry monthly pass.
Contact us
If you have questions about the 7-day fare cap or how it works with your existing monthly pass, please contact us.