KEY POINTS:
The public transport reforms revealed today are hardly the revolutionary changes the Auckland Regional Transport Authority (Arta) has been pushing for. Indeed the proposed new purchaser-provider mode doesn't even restore the status quo, replaced in 1991 by the disastrous Thatcherite model that has subsequently dogged Auckland's bus system for 15 years.
But at least it's a start, and a sign that our latest Transport Minister, Annette King, means business. Also, the word from within Arta is that it can live with this watered-down version of its proposal.
The good news is that once the legislation is in place, Arta - and the other public transport authorities around the country - will again be able to impose some basic conditions of service on all their operators. Insisting that buses and trains and ferries keep to their timetables, for instance. And that rival operators join together to provide an integrated ticketing service that enables passengers to mix and match modes of travel using the same ticket. Transport operators will also have to open their books so the public authority can inspect just how much they need the subsidies they request.
The downside is that there'll be a time lag while old contracts run out, before the new controls can fully kick in. That's unless the private bus companies have a sudden rush of public spiritedness to the head, and voluntarily sign up before they are forced to. But given recent histrionics, it's hard to contemplate that happening.
In the speculative fever that built up before today's announcement, major operator Infratil indulged in some spectacular public foot-stamping and dummy-spitting, threatening to quit the industry at the thought that Arta's desired reform package might win the day. What Arta wanted was a simple contracting model, where it, the public purchaser of the service, on behalf of you and me, designed the most suitable integrated public transport network for the region and then called for tenders from operators to provide the service.
To Infratil, this proposition was "extremely unattractive".
Of course, to Arta and other local authorities it was the existing model that was extremely unattractive. They pointed to the fact that Britain was the only other country in the world employing such a system. That most civilised cities used the simple contracting model they were proposing.
The worst aspect of the existing system is that an operator can identify a certain popular route - or more often, the most profitable rush-hour timeslots on that route - trot off to the relevant authority and register it as a "commercial" service. Once done, this becomes the operator's own personal fiefdom. Unless the back wheels of a bus regularly fall off, or the driver does unspeakable things to his passengers, there's very little the authorities can do. They can't for instance, insist on buses keeping to a timetable. In Auckland, 26 per cent of bus services, carrying around 46 per cent of all passengers, are in these unpoliceable commercial wildlands.
Annette King's proposed reforms do bring these 46 per cent of Auckland passengers back under regulatory protection. Even though operators will still be able to register "commercial" routes, they will be forced to agree to and abide by the regulatory conditions imposed by Arta. Requirements, for instance, that they have to turn up on time every day. And that they agree to honour a valid ticket sold by a rival operator at an earlier stage of the passenger's journey.
In the interests of the network at large, "commercial" operators will no longer be allowed to cherry-pick the most profitable rush-hour slots. They will have to service the slower middle-of-the-day and evening runs as well.
Given how slow transport reform can be - even under a Government which trumpets its commitment to the cause - the vagueness of the timetable for the changeover to the new regime is worrying. A briefing paper says "commercial operators will still be able to operate existing commercial services, but will, over time, have to comply with any regional passenger transport plan controls".
Given the ability of both local authorities and commercial firms under threat to prolong the inevitable, let's hope a more prescriptive deadline for the reforms kicking in is part of the final legislation.
