Bus, rail fares to rise at weekend

Ticket fares for Auckland public transport services will rise by at least 10c. Photo / Steven McNicholl

From Sunday Auckland's bus, train and some ferry services will raise their ticket prices by at least 10c a journey.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority (ARTA) announced the fare increase, the first in three years, this month.

ARTA chief executive Fergus Gammie said Auckland's operators held off raising fares to encourage transport and in acknowledgment of hard economic times despite other cities increasing prices.

"Over the past three years the costs associated with running transport fleets have increased by around 11 per cent."

Mr Gammie said the fare increase was decided by several factors including the increased costs to operators, revenue increases and the consumer price index.

He said bus fares for single and 10-trip tickets would increase between 2 and 3 per cent, and rail users faced a larger increase of between 5 and 7 per cent.

A single-stage ride on an Auckland bus goes up from $1.60 to $1.70 and on a train from $1.40 to $1.50. A four-stage journey goes from $5.40 to $5.50 for buses and $4.80 to $5 for trains.

Rail fares have always been lower than bus fares but improvements to commuter rail services, including increased frequency at peak times and improvements in infrastructure, have resulted in higher costs that ARTA says must be passed on to commuters.

Passengers travelling on multi-use concession passes will pay extra to some bus and ferry operators, but their ticket cost will still be up to 40 per cent lower than one-off fares.

An NZ Bus all-zones monthly pass will go up from $170 if bought from a ticket agent to $185 and a monthly all-zone train pass will increase $5 to $165.

Ferry tickets will remain largely unchanged, but several multi-journey adult passes are increasing from $35 to $36. West Harbour ferries will not be increasing its fares.

Mr Gammie said that in most cases public transport continued to offer good value for money.

"Travelling from Papakura to the CBD on a weekly basis, the weekly cost of running a car comes in at $142 per week against $66 for using the train. This is a weekly saving of $76 and an annual saving of $3648 which is fairly substantial."

Full details of fare changes can be found at www.maxx.co.nz.