Anger over 6 per cent fare hikes in Auckland

David White STUFF.CO.NZ
Auckland bus and trains fares "too high", say passengers as prices rise again.

An Auckland councillor is angry that bus train and ferry commuters face fare rises of up to 6 per cent.

Richard Hills said the increases might seem small but to families and those with little money that can be a barrier to public transport.

Auckland Transport announced the increases on Monday, after an unsuccessful bid driven by its board of directors to attract a funding boost from the council and NZTA.

The council agency said the increases will bring in an extra $3.7 million annually.

READ MORE:
Auckland public transport fares could be frozen
Auckland's free buses and trains has released a genie out of the bottle 
Councillor asks Auckland Transport to look at extending free public transport
Auckland's public transport third most expensive in the world

Hills said he was disappointed the Government's enthusiasm to make public transport more affordable, hadn't been reflected in NZTA's decision not to provide a funding boost.

The number of trips taken on Auckland's public transport rose to 95.6 million in the past year.
STUFF
The number of trips taken on Auckland's public transport rose to 95.6 million in the past year.

"It does seem bizarre there's no wriggle room," he told Stuff.

NZTA said it had tried over three months to fund the cost gap that would be left by a fare freeze in Auckland.

"Unfortunately, a small fare increase is still needed to be implemented by Auckland Transport," NZTA said in a statement.

Auckland Transport's board in December committed to trying to achieve either a fare freeze or a reduction, but didn't have room in its existing budget to fund it.

Hills said a two-zone fare had been cut from $4.10 to $3.10, which had been great, but after next month's rise, will be $3.45.

"We cannot keep seeing these big jumps every year." 

Some bus fares for those travelling to and from zones 7 and 8 will see fares fall.
CHRIS MCKEEN/STUFF
Some bus fares for those travelling to and from zones 7 and 8 will see fares fall.

Most adult fares using the AT HOP ticket card will rise by around 10 cents a trip, with some steeper rises for tertiary students of 15 to 20 cents.

But AT chief executive Shane Ellison told Stuff fixing fare prices was not the only factor in boosting patronage.

"It's just one potential level that we could pull to get more people to use trains buses and ferries," said Ellison.

Auckland rail commuters will pay an extra 15 cents for a two-zone trip from February 10.
CHRIS MCKEEN/STUFF
Auckland rail commuters will pay an extra 15 cents for a two-zone trip from February 10.

AT had invested heavily in extra capacity last year in its new bus network roll-out, more frequent train services and more high-capacity double decker routes in coming months, he said.

Ellison said the idea of a fare freeze could be looked at next year, but it wasn't the only way to go.

"Whether it's a fare freeze or something else in terms of fares, we are looking at ways to use fares to improve the outcomes Auckland Council and the Government want," he said.

There are a few winners in the changes next month, with the $215 monthly bus and train pass unchanged and small decreases for a small number of commuters travelling the furthest in zones 7 and 8.

The fare increases will bring in an extra $1.7m in the remaining four and a half months of this financial year, or $3.7m annually. 

Auckland Transport's annual budget is $1.8 billion and it ended the last financial year with a surplus of $692.6m - $180m more than expected.

Asked if the agency could have afforded a fare freeze this year, Ellison said: "It's not as simple as that - we have got a lot of cost pressures from a lot of different places.

"Ultimately we have got to balance the cash we get from funders (council and NZTA) with the cash we spend."

Ellison said AT had absorbed around $10m of additional public transport costs, due to its requirement to pay operators for increased costs such as fuel and wages.

AT approached both the mayor's office and NZTA pre-Christmas, to secure more funding, but NZTA which jointly funds public transport, declined.

The lifting of fares from next month, is possibly a final defeat for AT's chairman Lester Levy, who is near the end of his six-year term and unsuccessfully pushed the idea of freezing fares last year.

"It's not a radical thing, it's not an ideological thing, it's strategic," Levy told Stuff this year as the last-minute push to secure more funding continued.

Levy said since fares were re-structured in 2016, offering cheaper travel on journeys that involved transfers, AT had absorbed an income drop of $10-15 million annually.

AT is trying to shift more people out of cars onto public transport but is hampered by budget pressure, and government regulation.

NZTA and the government is mulling over removing a requirement for council's to cover 47-50 per cent of the cost of services, from fares.

Auckland is the world's third most expensive city for public transport, the Deutsche Bank Mapping the World's Prices 2017 report found, costing an average of $174.51 per month.

Auckland came in behind London, which costs $247.07 a month and Dublin, which costs $186.87 a month.

Overall patronage in Auckland rose 5.2 per cent over the past year to a record 95.6 million trips.

*comments on this article have been closed

Stuff