Cheaper public transport
For many Wellingtonians transport is a significant cost. Cheaper bus and train fares are key to lowering the cost of living, reducing congestion on our city’s streets and increasing public transport usage and reliability.
Andrew Little and Labour’s Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) candidates are proposing policies to make public transport more affordable.
The key commitments are:
- Reducing bus and train fares through a weekly cap on fares.
- Working with central government to keep fares down.
The problem
The cost of living is continuing to rise in Wellington. Households spend around $250 a week on transport costs. People on lower incomes spend proportionally far more on transport compared to those on the highest incomes.
Road transport is the largest source of emissions in the Wellington region. Congestion makes emissions worse and leads to lost time and productivity for people stuck in traffic.
We need to encourage more people to switch over to public transport to reduce the cost of living, ease congestion and lower emissions. Lowering the cost of public transport is an effective tool to encourage people to take the bus, train, or ferry.
The Government’s Land Transport Government Policy Statement (GPS) requires regional councils to increase the private share of funding for public transport every year. The only realistic lever regional councils have is increasing fares. If councils don’t do this, they risk losing funding from the Government.
Thanks to the work of Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), chaired by Daran Ponter, NZTA agreed to only a 2.2% increase in fares this year rather than the 70% they originally asked for. Wellington will need to keep working with central government to reduce fare hikes.
Wellington should also look to other cities that have introduced innovative schemes to reduce the cost of public transport.
Auckland Transport has fifty workplaces signed up to Fareshare, which subsidises public transport for their staff. There is scope to investigate a similar measure in Wellington, starting with large employers.
Sydney has introduced off-peak fares on Fridays to increase usage during low-use periods.
Policy proposals
A weekly cap on bus and train fares. Under this policy, once someone with a registered Snapper Card takes eight trips in a week, any further trips that week will be free. This will make a real difference to people’s backpockets:
- Assuming an adult commutes every day from Newtown to the end of Lambton Quay during peak times (10 trips), this could save them at least $300 a year. If they also took two trips on the weekend into the city and back, this would save them in total at least $600 a year.
- If someone commuted from Strathmore Park to the CBD every day, they would save at least $443 a year.
- A person commuting from Tawa to Courtney Place would save at least $699 a year.
This policy will also encourage an estimated 300,000 additional trips on public transport – reducing congestion on our city’s roads and lowering Wellington’s carbon emissions. This would be delivered within the next local government term.
Advocate for central government to deliver pro-public transport policy. Wellingtonians expect their mayor to stand up for them. Andrew Little will advocate to the Transport Minister to get a better deal for our region. This will include asking for the Government to amend the GPS to remove the requirement for regional councils to increase faress annually.
Investigate other measures to increase affordability, including:
- Public transport subsidised by workplaces, similar to Auckland Transport’s Fareshare scheme.
- Introduction of targeted off-peak fares for times when public transport is currently underutilised.