Higher bus fares on the horizon

Photo / The Aucklander

Auckland commuters could pay higher bus fares or risk losing services as the Government moves to clip the ticket of the nation's public transport, The Aucklander reports.

The New Zealand Transport Agency has put out a new "farebox recovery ratio".

At present, more than half the cost of a fare on a subsidised Auckland bus, train or ferry is paid by taxpayers and ratepayers. The ratio of the fare is compared to how much is subsidised - called the "farebox recovery ratio".

Say a bus trip costs $10. Of this, the user pays only $4.45. The rest is made up of contributions from the taxpayer-funded Transport Agency and the ratepayer-funded Auckland Regional Transport Authority.

The Government, through the transport agency, wants to lift the national average to 50 per cent, which means a 5.5 per cent rise in Auckland's farebox recovery ratios. This is to compensate for other regions throughout the country, some of which are as low as 13.7 per cent.

Half the Auckland Regional Council's rates take goes into public transport. The chairwoman of its transport and urban development committee, Christine Rose, says the transport agency's approach isn't necessarily particularly well thought out.

"If we were to have an arbitrary target of 50 per cent imposed on us, that would lead to fare increases, rate increases and reductions in the levels of service that clearly are not tenable. It would affect the viability of public transport in Auckland."

Transport Agency partnerships and planning manager Dave Brash says the changes will be phased in between 2012 and 2016.

"We're not saying it has to be 50 per cent all the time or straight away," he says. "If you get patronage up to certain levels you can get the ratios without putting the price up.

"If you do improve the services then arguably the customers are willing to pay more for the service."

However, he concedes: "Over time, if the patronage isn't there, we may have to cut routes."

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