KEY POINTS:
Public transport trips by Aucklanders rose almost 10 per cent in July, August and September, spurred by record fuel prices over winter.
Although the Auckland Regional Transport Authority has yet to gauge the effect of falling fuel prices since then, figures will be cushioned by a more than doubling of trips in October by superannuitants who became eligible for free off-peak public transport in an election campaign gift from Labour and New Zealand First.
The authority has reported a 9.3 per cent increase in overall public transport patronage in the three months to September compared with the same quarter of last year, to 14.97 million trips.
It believes that was largely because of the high cost of fuelling private cars, helped by a doubling of discounts offered to tertiary students for 10-ride tickets, to 40 per cent off adult fares.
Tertiary students buying 10-ride tickets accounted for almost 25 per cent of an extra 1.275 million trips taken by Aucklanders on buses, trains or ferries in the latest quarter.
It was their elders' turn in October, which was outside the reporting period but for which the authority says the introduction of free travel after 9am for SuperGold card holders has resulted in a 106 per cent leap in their use of public transport.
They made 301,827 trips then, compared with 146,312 in October last year.
Overall passenger growth for the previous three months was "way above expectations", authority chairman Mark Ford said on Wednesday.
It compares with an annual patronage growth target of 1.7 per cent, and includes a 95 per cent jump in passengers on express buses from North Shore City boosted by the new $300 million busway.
Rail patronage also kept growing, by 18 per cent.
The authority reported healthy growth of 7.8 per cent in other bus services, which were in the doldrums before winter's fuel price rises.
Ferries were the only form of public transport to record a decline in patronage, of 5.1 per cent.
The authority blames this partly on hefty fare increases imposed by Fullers on its unsubsidised Waiheke Island, Devonport and Stanley Bay ferry services.
Regional council transport chairwoman Christine Rose said she hoped falling fuel prices meant an annual review by the authority of subsidised public transport services would not lead to fare rises next month, and may even bring "a downward trend".
She also pointed to a possible decline in public transport use against lower fuel prices, saying she saw a decline in western line rail passengers in the past two weeks and more cars on the Northwestern Motorway.
Mr Ford was non-committal about fares, saying only that his board was "aware of the economic situation and what it is doing to people's pockets".
There was no mention at the meeting of a reference in the authority's report to the 12-month Helensville commuter rail trial, which carried an average of just 23 passengers each morning during the September quarter, against a break-even target of 40.
Ms Rose reminded the Herald that the trial did not start until July 14, and she believed from her own observations as a regular passenger on the service from her Waimauku home that patronage was picking up over the longer summer days.
At the southern end of Auckland's rail network, regional council Franklin and Papakura representative Dianne Glenn said the success of Pukekohe services carrying about 450 passengers a day was making it hard to find a carpark close to the station.
She suspected many parked cars were owned by commuters from Tuakau, but warned the council that a petition of several thousand signatures was circulating in that town against the proposed new regional fuel tax as a way of funding rail electrification and other public transport improvements.
Going up
* Overall public transport patronage - up 9.3 per cent.
* Northern Express bus services - up 95 per cent.
* Other bus services - up 7.8 per cent.
* Rail - up 18 per cent.
