Seniors' get-away bus pass dumped

Auckland pensioners are upset Stagecoach is scrapping a $1 "get-away" Monday bus fare, and replacing it with a one-day pass costing six times the price.

The $1 ticket, which entitled people aged 65 or over to ride one-way on any Stagecoach bus between 9am and 3pm on Mondays, is a casualty of a review also leading to rises from yesterday of between 8.3 per cent and 22.2 per cent on other fares.

It is being replaced by a $6 one-day pass entitling senior citizens to travel anywhere in the region on any week day after 9am, until the buses stop running at night, or at any time at weekends and public holidays.

Retired union secretary Ken Tuxford, who represented staff of the old Auckland Regional Authority when it ran an earlier version of Stagecoach's bus fleet, said that the loss of the ticket was a blow to efforts by older people to stay mobile.

It had allowed senior citizens to travel from central Auckland to as far as Orewa, although he acknowledged they had to pay another $1 to get home again.

Mr Tuxford said charging $1 was no hardship to Stagecoach, as few people used buses between peak times, so any extra custom was a bonus at whatever price. "The people who run bus services in Auckland couldn't run a bath," he said.

Auckland Greypower president Jens Meder also expressed concern that the loss of the deal would cause hardship to superannuitants.

But Stagecoach marketing manager Russell Turnbull said only about 200 seniors bought the fare each Monday, compared with a similar number in Wellington who on any particular day took advantage of a $5 deal offering unlimited bus travel.

"It is enormously successful so we think it is a better fare," he said of the Wellington deal and on which Stagecoach is modelling its new Auckland ticket, although for $1 more.

The company is also scrapping a $5 one-day "shopper pass" for unlimited travel in Auckland between 9am and 3pm, and replacing it with a $7 fare from 9am until when the buses stop running.