by frog
Buried on page 7 of the Dominion Post is the unfortunate news that the Greater Wellington voted to raise bus and train fares yesterday.
Most troubling is the doubling of the inner-city fare from $1 to $2. A 100% increase in price will lead to stark drop in demand for services. Many people will shift to walking and cycling, which is better for public health and the environment.
But the gains from increased walking and cycling will be more than offset by the increase in vehicle trips through the city. We already see that with free parking on the weekend and reduced public transport services there is a huge increase in congestion in the inner-city on Saturday and Sunday.
We can expect a similar effect to come about from a doubling in price. The additional pollution from cars sitting in congestion will disproportionately harm the health of cyclists and jeopardise the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. It will negatively impact property values and amenity, motivating more people to move out of the inner city, buy cars and commute into the city.
It is the typical cycle of car dependence that leads to reduced transport options, increased congestion, increased pollution and increased overall transport costs. It’s a lose-lose situation, because it will make it harder for the Regional Council to achieve greater cost recovery of public transport services.
There are alternatives to this death spiral!
Regional Councillors Paul Bruce and Nigel Wilson moved to delay the fare raises until 2011, when the impacts of service improvements would be better understood. They raised a number of pertinent points that were well-supported by evidence:
1: We are providing a poor train service. It is unfair to penalise current loyal customers with a fare increase. A fare increase leads to a drop off in patronage, and this is what we don’t want at present.
2: The present fares are based on a much higher price of oil and lower exchange rate. This has resulted in a diesel bus operating surplus of $3.4 million.
3: NZTA calculate that we achieve 55% cost recovery compared to GW’s calculations of 48%. We should move to their methodology which exclude capital investment recovery, and would mean that we still remain within the target of 50% farebox recovery rate.
4: We can look forward to a big surge in customers in the coming year, and thus a significant increase in revenue due to:
- completion of upgrade in services, new trains, real time information, and more efficient, reliable bus system in Wellington City;
- Rising fuel prices and continued economic uncertainty will push people back towards public transport;
- Mt Victoria car tunnel will be shut down for 5 weeks from late December, which could provide a significant opportunity to move people from their cars onto buses.
5: Greater Wellington’s policy of integrated transport systems should mean that incoming passengers are able to move onto inner city buses at no extra cost. We already provide free connecting buses on the Kapiti Coast, which has lead to increase fares paid on trains, and further potential savings from fewer people using “Park and Ride” car parks.
6: A motion passed at a GW meeting earlier this year, requested that GW explore with WCC and local business the potential for moving some of a business levy from offsetting weekend parking revenue towards city fares. This has yet to be fully explored.
Unfortunately, Paul and Nigel were outnumbered on the Transport and Access Committee by councillors who do not grasp the complexities of transport policy and benefits (Cr.’s Peter Glensor, Sandra Greig and John Burke) – but there may yet be a possibility for public action to influence the full Council vote in a few weeks time.
If not, local body elections are coming up in October, and in addition to re-electing Paul and Nigel, concerned residents of Wellington can elect other transport-savvy councillors. Robert Ashe is one such promising candidate that I am aware of.
Transport-savvy Regional Councillor Paul Bruce
Published in Environment & Resource Management by frog on Wed, June 16th, 2010
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on 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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Frog, the only fare that is doubling in price is the Inner City bus fare which will bring it in line with the standard one stage fare in Wellington (which is presently $1.50 and is expected to increase to $2). Other fares are expected to go up, but mostly by 50 cents or $1, and that is because of the GST increase as well as the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s policy of having public transport fares in 50 cent increments.
I don’t think that this will destroy public transport patronage in Wellington, as, so far as I could see, there aren’t a huge number of people who take Inner City bus trips only within Wellington.
“This is all being driven by the farebox recovery ratio”
Jeremy, it is the hike in GST that is driving this, nothing else.
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Frog, the longer term policy is to exclude cars from the inner city. So ultimately it’s a case of exploiting the southerly and rain to extract money from those who would walk on a good day (or if not walk – take up the public commuter bike option now used overseas).
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It’s not solely about that john-ston, the councillors have stated it has to do with the FRR… Read point 3 in the post…
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One should also note the pressure government has placed on public transport providers (here bus) with talk of expecation of rail to extract more from commuters. In Wellington the charges for bus are linked to those for rail.
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The cost of parking in Wellington is $4per hour ($3 per hour ($12 for the day) if you use Private owned car parks…)
How is a $1 difference going to increase people the number of people taking their cars into the city?
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John-ston, the hike in GST is 2.5%, not 100%.
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“John-ston, the hike in GST is 2.5%, not 100%.”
Except the fare increase of 100% is only for the Inner City bus zone, with varying increases in fares for other trips. Don’t forget also about the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s policy of having public transport fares in 50 cent increments – that means that a 2.5% increase in GST would result in a 50 cent increase in fares, even if that figure is greater than the 2.5%.
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johm-ston – silly arguement.
Using your logic, every time there was any small increase – fuel, annual wage adjustments, a new bus, there would have to be a minimum of a 50c rise in fares.
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photonz
They don’t increase the fares every year – so a 50 cents increase now because of the GST rise would mean there would be cover for inflation for a few years without further increases. Normally, there would have been the option of covering the GST rise within existing fares, but in this case because the bus fares are linked to local commuter rail fares and the government wants these increased, they had no ability to do that this time.
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“Using your logic”
It is not my logic, it is what the Greater Wellington Regional Council does – their fares are strictly in increments of 50 cents. If it wasn’t for that policy, then I don’t imagine that the fare increase would have been as steep as it is expected to be.
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This is frickin bs
I’ll be riding my bike and scooter way more
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