Fares decision next year

Auckland rail and bus passengers will have to wait until after the Christmas break to learn whether fares will rise next year.

Although the Auckland Regional Transport Authority has previously indicated that rail fares are likely to rise in February, for the first time in three years, its board has deferred a decision until after Christmas.

Communications manager Sharon Hunter said an annual review of both rail and bus fares was continuing.

"The review has not been completed and a decision has not been made yet as to whether fares will rise in 2010," Ms Hunter said.

The prospect of higher rail fares was raised in October by authority chief executive Fergus Gammie in a letter to the Auckland Regional Council, his organisation's parent body.

Mr Gammie said then that the Government's Transport Agency had highlighted a difference in fares between Auckland and Wellington while formulating a new cost recovery policy in consultation with regional councils, with which it shares public transport operating subsidies.

That would "most likely" mean increases for rail passengers and any potential fare rises would be implemented from February, he said.

Although Auckland rail passengers receive a public subsidy of about $8 a trip, compared with $2.20c for their Wellington counterparts, their regional council has in a submission to the Transport Agency pointed to the higher costs of operating old diesel trains in its territory.

The council says the new electric trains which the Government has authorised KiwiRail to order for Auckland under a $500 million budget will have considerably lower operating costs than the region's existing fleet.

Wellington is meanwhile preparing to receive its third fleet of electric trains since its rail network was plugged into the national grid more than 50 years ago.