Public transport Britomart and downtown Auckland bus terminal. Photo / Jason Dorday
Public transport Britomart and downtown Auckland bus terminal. Photo / Jason Dorday
Children riding with Hop card users and a simplified zonal fare system would ease travel around city.
Auckland families will be big winners in a public transport fare overhaul including free weekend bus and train travel for children accompanied by adults with Hop cards.
The proposal - associated with a simplified zone system Auckland Transport intends rolling out next year - will allow two children under 16 to travel free with each paying adult at weekends and public holidays.
It has been welcomed by the youth organisation Generation Zero and the Campaign for Better Transport, which has promoted the idea for several years as a way of normalising public transport for young people while making more use of spare capacity at weekends.
It is also seen as an extra incentive for more Aucklanders to use Hop cards rather than cash and avoid holding up others queuing to board buses.
CBT convener Cameron Pitches said it would be a valuable contribution to the life of Auckland, while giving families an alternative to getting stuck in weekend traffic jams which were increasingly common.
"It's a good way to encourage patronage, because at the weekend there's always the temptation to take the station wagon or family car."
Generation Zero spokesman Sudhvir Singh said it would complement existing free public transport at weekends and after 9am on week days for older Aucklanders carrying SuperGold Cards.
Auckland's Grey Power zone director, Bill Rayner, called it "a neat idea" making it more affordable for pensioners to take their grandchildren on outings.
He is alarmed, however, by fine print in a proposed variation to Auckland's regional public transport plan suggesting a review of concessionary fares will consider removing free travel for seniors during evening peak periods.
An Auckland Transport spokesman assured the Weekend Herald "there is no proposal to change any aspect of the SuperGold travel concession" as part of its fares package.
But Mr Rayner said he was distrustful of the council body as the suggestion was "completely specific as a point of consideration".
Auckland Transport says its new zonal scheme will make it easier for passengers to travel using Hop cards without having to pay separate fares for each journey leg.
The proposal - open for public consultation until June 5 - includes 14 zones through which people making radial trips of similar distances will be charged identical fares, no matter how many connections are made between trains and buses. It will also allow people to travel as much as they like for up to two hours within a single zone for $1.70 to $1.80.
But a shrinking minority of passengers, now down to about 25 per cent, still wanting to pay by cash will have to buy a new ticket for each trip leg.
The new scheme gets worse for cash users as Auckland Transport intends increasing the discount for Hop users from about 20 per cent at the moment to at least 33 per cent.
An extreme example of the widening gap will be noticed by passengers taking bus and train trips between St Heliers and the airport.
Although cash fares for the three legs totalling $11.50 are already almost twice the $6.70 Hop equivalent and will remain largely unchanged, the new scheme will allow card holders to make the 24km trip for $3 to $3.30.
Auckland Transport says that if it chooses the low ends of indicated fare ranges, 96 per cent of Hop card users will be no worse off or will pay less than they do now.
But a commuter who drives from Meadowbank to park her car at the Orakei railway station and catch a train the rest of the way to downtown Auckland is incensed at a proposal to increase her Hop card fare from $1.70 to at least $3 for the 4km leg, a prospect shared by others making short trips across zone boundaries elsewhere in the city.
Ferries have been left out of the scheme for now.
Free kids travel the cherry on top
Keith Ward with his kids Emma and Luke."We came here for a quiet life ... we're loving it." Photo / Jason Dorday
Auckland life is just getting rosier for Londoner Keith Ward, who brought his family here for better times and is looking forward to free weekend public transport for his children.
"I reckon it's a marvellous carrot to dangle," the former City of London money broker turned primary school teacher says of Auckland Transport's plan.
Mr Ward admits that catching buses is still a novelty for Luke (9) and Emma (7) as he usually drives them from their Point Chevalier home to visit his Kiwi wife Astrud's parents in central Auckland at weekends.
"But we'll definitely contemplate using the bus for trips into downtown more than we do now," he said.
Despite popular criticism of Auckland's traffic, Mr Ward says it is nowhere as bad as the gridlock common in London, where he carried a public transport Oyster card whenever he left his house and never drove.
He believes Auckland is already "definitely a liveable city", but expects the children's travel concession will put icing on the cake.
"It's a good thing if it gives people more chance to get out and experience what's going on in Auckland," he said.
"We came here for a quiet life - it was all a bit busy in London - we're loving it."
