Auckland CityLink bus subsidy goes so users pay

AT says the CityLink has 2.6 million boardings a year.

Popular CityLink service had been backed as a way to promote tourism but that payment has vanished.

Auckland bus users will have to start paying to travel in the central city after Heart of the City and Waterfront Auckland pulled funding for the CityLink bus service.

Users of the red bus that links Auckland's waterfront and railway terminal with the Karangahape Rd ridge face a 50c jump in price of a single trip - whether they pay in cash or with an electronic ticket.

The introduction of a 50c charge for AT HOP card users on the CityLink and a rise from 50c to $1 for the adult cash ticket is part of a number of fare changes for bus, rail and ferry users being introduced on March 29 by Auckland Transport.

AT says the CityLink has 2.6 million boardings a year.

Previously, the service received funding from the Heart of the City business organisation and Waterfront Auckland, which has been trying to attract tourism and businesses to the Wynyard Quarter. But AT public transport general manager Mark Lambert said the subsidy had ended and AT had reluctantly introduced a fare change.

It included a 30c child single-trip fare and 40c a trip for tertiary students, though a tertiary student paying cash would have to pay $1 and a child 50c.

Heart of the City said it ceased its unspecified payments for the service at the beginning of last year because it only wanted to provide "seed funding". "We don't think 50c on a HOP card is going to be a deterrent to use," said the organisation's central manager, Tania Loveridge.

However, Karangahape Rd Business Association chief executive Barbara Holloway said the change would not be well received by hundreds of people who worked in and visited offices and shops on the link route.

"I use it to go to meetings instead of driving and I see a lot of professional people using it too, who would otherwise be in a car ... and it's well used by tourists and backpackers to get to hostels and transport."

Auckland University Students' Association president Paul Smith said hundreds of students on the city campus used the CityLink.

"I think it's a shame for AT to introduce a charge because it's a great service and it's a nice way to reward people for paying for a HOP card and for using public transport.

"The fare doesn't seem much but it all builds up."