by Gareth Hughes
[Disclaimer] In the spirit of Parliamentary transparency I need to start with acknowledging I have a vested interest in the issue. I live downtown Wellington and often I bus it to work. In fact I love Wellington’s city buses. Why? To start with a big chunk of them are wind-powered – in the sense they are electric trolley buses, powered mostly by the big local wind farm. Also they are super frequent, and it only costs $1 to get from one end of town to the other.
However the bus service Wellingtonians love is under threat from rising fares.
Greater Wellington Regional Council voted yesterday to raise public transport fares from 1 October 2010, to take account of the rise in GST and to increase revenues from fares. Some cash fares, like the city section will rise by as much as 100%.
It is a yet another slap-in-the-face for bus and train users coming on top of years of poor service levels, and ironically on the day that once again, several thousands rail users were left stranded for an average of twenty minutes because of a points failure. The council should wait till services are fast, frequent, and reliable, and patronage is growing rapidly before raising fares by this magnitude.
Luckily there was some sanity from Green Councillor Paul Bruce who voted against the proposal. He said that Wellington’s 30 to 60 year old trains are falling over, public relations surrounding current upgrades are very poorly managed and this has lead to a big drop in patronage of trains with a decrease of $0.9 million in revenue compared to budget. However, he pointed out the present fares are based on a much higher price of oil and lower exchange rate and this has resulted in a diesel bus operating surplus of $3.4 million.
An idea he’s promoting (and succeeded in getting a motion passed at a GW meeting earlier in the year) is to explore with WCC and local business the potential for moving some of the money from weekend parking revenue for cars towards helping out city fares.
What do you think – is the rise justified? Should we wait till there is a better service provided to discuss fare increases or should we shift the cash from parking to public transport?
Published in Environment & Resource Management | Featured by Gareth Hughes on Wed, June 16th, 2010
Tags: buses, wellington, wellington regional council
More posts by Gareth Hughes | more about Gareth Hughes
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
From the other post on this topic:
This is all being driven by the farebox recovery ratio, which is actully going to lower economic efficiency, this quote is from Auckland Transport Blog:
“Of course that is stupid. NZTA know it’s stupid and have said so. So why on earth are they proceeding with this crazy policy? What this table shows is that we should actually be looking the other way, to reduce the farebox recovery ratio because it seems to pay back extremely well in terms of economic benefits if patronage is increased: for example in Wellington it would cost $4.3 million extra to lower the farebox recovery down to 50%, but that would “pay off” with $22.14 million of benefits – a cost-benefit ratio of $5.14 returned for every dollar invested (translation: extremely high.)”
http://transportblog.co.nz/2010/06/11/50-farebox-recovery-policy-a-joke-and-nzta-know-it/
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That’s really bizarre. Wellington’s farebox recovery ratio is already well above 50%, much higher than Auckland’s or Christchurch’s – meaning that the travelling public there is more than paying their way comparatively.
I’ve heard a rumour they’re getting rid of monthly passes too. How stupid.
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I love Metrocard over Snapper…so so much…Wellington bus fares over a day rack up no end if you didn’t think to buy a day pass…even snapper sucks…
If they get rid of monthly passes many of their chartered services will be buggered as most secondary schools who charter buses within the Wellington area do so on the knowledge that it is cheaper to do that for their students then charging a lump bus travel travel sum to the parents for a proper solely chartered bus service..that’s probably gonna change, at least for the Wellington private schools I think..They were peeved off as it was the other year when bus workers striked for the weeks over exam period…
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Great points.
On the farebox. As I understand it NZTA calculates that Wellington achieves 55% cost recovery compared to GWRC’s calculations of 48%. GWRC could move to the NZTA methodology which excludes capital investment recovery, and would mean that Wellington would still remain within the target of 50% farebox recovery rate.
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To clarify, you say “this has resulted in a diesel bus operating surplus of $3.4 million.” That refers to revenue from fares less costs of running them, right? You’re not including the subsidy in that?
Is there a similar operating surplus for the electric buses?
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On the scrapping of monthly passes ’ve bee getting a few emails and messages about this,
It seems that the scrapping of the monthly bus passes announced yesterday in the DominionPost is a good example of bad communication.
They are being scrapped as stand alone passes, but are getting rolled into Snapper where the concessions will continue and will be automatically calculated.
This was announced last year, but I imagine the thousands of people who regularly use monthly passes (many of whom this is a significant portion of their weekly budget) who read yesterdays paper will be scratching their head as to what is happening, worrying if they’ll be paying the normal section fares and can afford to take the bus to work everyday, and struggling to find any information about it online.
Our elected officials need to be careful with their communication and be clear with public transport users exactly what’s happening so as to keep people off our congested roads and on the buses.
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An increase in fares may well help cover the running costs, but it may well discourage use of public transport & encourage ‘jack & jill kiwi’ to get back behind the wheel of their beloved private cars again..
If this Nat-led Govt. is serious about enviro. concerns.. they would be showing it, by helping cover the costs & promoting buses & trains, over private cars as the only option !
Kia-ora
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The money from raising the inner city fare by 100% should go to providing commuter bikes …, once they exclude cars from the inner city … and bring in integrated ticketing so those who come into the city by PT get a discount.
Of course moving now would only increase the relative cost of using PT over use of the car – which would mean road congestion delays whenever the weather was bad.
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The global economy is struggling and has posed challenges to our domestic economy too. During this time even thinking about fare increases is not a great idea anyways.
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To Zedd,
….but our National/Act led government are not serious about environmental concerns, they never have been, and they never will be, except only as far that there is political mileage to be made out of a professed concern or they are forced to back down. All their policies will be premised by money first, environment second.
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Wellington needs to stand on par with the rest of the developed world with how much public transportation is provided for its citizens. This is a problem for all of New Zealand in general. Auckland being the largest city has an even poorer transit system than Wellington. There needs to be more incentive for people to use the transit system. Increasing fares will only drive people away, further clogging up the roads.
Not to mention the further dependence on foreign oil as more commuters ride in their cars as opposed to cleaner and more efficient buses. I would rather have the parking fees be very heavily taxed or have a toll to get into the city centre instead of increasing bus fares any day. Cities like New York get revenue from commuters who drive through tolls to fund for public transit.
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Here’s some views from the Wairarapa
http://www.times-age.co.nz/local/news/travellers-fume-over-fare-hikes/3916068/
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It’s terrible that they’re getting rid of the monthly gold pass – the gold pass is one of the few good things left about bus travel! They’re easy to use, give you certainty about how much you’re spending on transport each month, and let you get on and off the bus quickly without holding people up. Who isn’t sick of the endless delays while some poor commuter tries ten times to get their snapper card read, or is frantically searching through their pockets for the card?
The buses themselves are third world bone-shaking wrecks, and the snapper system is rubbish. Shame on the regional council, and on Go Wellington.
Bring on the competition!
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I am a Greater Wellington Regional Councillor.
Just to clarify some points.
Farebox recovery:
Present bus fares are based on a high price of diesel and low exchange rate which hasn’t eventuated yet, resulting in a gain of $3.4 million, while loss of patronage from trains led to a drop of $0.9m. The net year to date annual operating revenue change is $3.4 – $0.9 = + $2.5m. The full year forecast net operating surplus from operations is now $1.2 million compared to the budgeted deficit of $0.9 million. Operational costs do not justify by themselves, a fare increase!
There are various reasons to believe that the forecast operational surplus may be an underestimate: - We should see a significant recovery following the delivery of the new Matangi trains. However, penalizing present loyal train customers with a fare increase would diminish the feel good factor.
- Improved efficiency of Wellington Bus services in the coming year should also lead to increased patronage. - Forecast fuel price rises will push people back towards public transport - The shut down of Mt Victoria car tunnel for 5 weeks from late December could provide a significant opportunity to promote the public transport alternative.
Monthly gold Pass
Private transport operators are being allowed to dictate the terms of fare concessions. The removal of the Gold Card, the most widely used ticket in the region, will result in 3-zone users facing a 39% increase, 4-zone (eg Upper Hutt-Lower Hutt) 56% based on an average 21-day working month. Here is an opportunity for GW to offer a replacement concession. GW has yet to endorse a smart card. Go Wellington has assured us that they will replace the monthly card concession with a Snapper fare product… with fares debited for the first 3 weeks. However, there has been no official announcement, and if GW is now regarding Snapper as a legitimate alternative to cash fare products, then it should ensure that monthly concessions are part of the fare rise package, and request the removal of the $10 surcharge on purchase of the smart card.
I made all these points at the recent GW full council meeting. Most other Councillors did not want to engage with these issues, and in spite of a lively debate, the Dom Post reporter also did not report on the issue.
My media statement is pasted below …. it also was not printed by Dompost:
A forecast operational surplus of $1.2 million means the proposed 2010 public transport fare increase is not justified, Regional Councillor Paul Bruce said today.
Wellington Regional Council proposes to raise public transport fares to generate a 3.5% increase in revenue for 2010/11.
Greater Wellington has the highest farebox recovery of any public transport operation in the country, according to figures from the New Zealand Transport Agency.
“Wellingtonians already pay a greater share of the service costs for their bus and train journeys than any other New Zealanders,” said Mr Bruce.
The rise also undermines the Regional Transport Strategy’s objective of increased public transport patronage, and will worsen traffic congestion and its negative impact on the regional economy, said Mr Bruce.
“There are many opportunities improve the structure of off-peak concessions and monthly passes, and to deliver better integrated transport options. One such example would be zero fares for inner city travel for commuters arriving on other contracted services,” Mr Bruce said.
“We saw that free connecting buses to rail services on the Kapiti Coast increased rail passengers and a freed up park and ride car parks.
“We should have something similar for inner city fares. ”There will be a significant recovery in patronage following the delivery of the new Matangi trains next year, along with planned efficiency improvements to the Wellington city bus network,” said Mr Bruce.
“Any revenue increase, apart from GST, should be deferred until June 2011, when the impact of service upgrades and consequent recovery in passenger numbers and revenue will be evident.”
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Paul,
Thanks for your posting to this blog. Why on earth did you go into politics? There must be easier and quicker way of bashing out your brains than attending council meetings, wouldn’t a nearby brick wall do? Your comments “the councillors didn’t want to engage with these issues”, that the meeting wasn’t reported in the Dominion Post, and the Dominion Post didn’t publish your press release say it all really. There’s a degree of wilful uncomprehension about the state of our city, our country, our planet that is much the same as the average German’s uncomprehension of their fate prior to the Second World War.
But good on you, you’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din, as I sit grumpily sniping at the folly of the world through my lap top, while you and many others in the Green movement are getting your sleeves rolled up and your brains bashed out on our behalf. Thanks so much again.
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