Wellington Station — Attraction in North Island

This railway station boasts some really nice classic architecture and always seems to be relatively clean and well maintained. I come through here daily. I do however have a bit of an issue with the recent addition of the Snapper service and terminals. Yes Snapper is good and convenient and meant to save time, but I have to wonder how much time is actually being saved as the train guards, far from being relieved of ticket clipping duty, now seem to be required to stand over each and every commuter to scan the Snapper cards. However, they can't actually tag you on which sort of defeats the purpose a bit. Recently I failed to tag on properly at a station and the guard made me get off to tag on at the next, which wouldn't have been an issue had my leg not been broken, and walking painful and difficult.

The Snapper terminals at the main station have created some horrible bottlenecks due to the sheer number of commuters going through each day. I'm not sure whose good idea it was to essentially force crowds of rushed people to wait in line like this, but I think we could look to other countries who have turnstiles and so forth at the station, for inspiration.

Plus I'm told that Metlink sacked all their ticket office staff because of Snapper, not sure how many jobs were lost. I anticipate the next fare hike won't...

This relates to the customer service provided at the ticketing booth rather than the station itself. I rolled up and asked for a snapper card, asking if this could be used on the train. They confirmed it could, but then tried to convince me to buy a day pass. It was 6.30pm and I just wanted to go to Johnsonville and back which I told them, but they kept trying to explain the day pass, at some length. That was part of the confusion, there were two staff speaking to me at the same time. They explained it was $12 which I thought rather a lot but due to their insistence, tried to understand why they kept pushing it. Eventually I got it, they were saying it could be used all day. I pointed out that it was 6.30pm so there wasn’t much day left, and that I’d clearly said I wanted a single return trip, so unlimited travel was not relevant for me. It was clear they felt I hadn’t understood so at one point I resorted to reminding them that it’s called a ‘day pass’ which gives a good clue as to its purpose and merits. Eventually I got my snapper card and $20 credit and the entire return trip cost around $6.50. It was an utterly bizarre interaction that lasted at least 5 minutes with two clueless staff that almost resulted in my missing the train. Customer disservice...

This relates to the terrible customer service from the guy at the ticket booth. Not the station itself.

I had left my EFTPOS card at home, so I had to top up my Snapper with cash. I got to the ticket booth and the joke behind the counter ignored me and kept texting on his phone.

I was the only one there and it was impossible for him to have not seen me. I was standing 6 inches in front of him.

After 5 minutes, he eventually looked up and didn't even bother saying hello, or ask how he could help. Just stared at me until I explained I had to top up my Snapper card with cash.

All he said was "card?". After I gave him my Snapper card and the cash, he went back to texting on his phone before eventually topping up my Snapper card. I almost missed my train because of him!

I couldn't even get his name because he wasn't...