All aboard Auckland's public transport - the new challenge

Monday, 27 May 2019

Cheaper and more appealing public transport is one of the city's biggest challenges.

OPINION: A celebration next month of the 100 millionth public transport journey to be notched up in a 12-month period in Auckland will also signal the city's next big political challenge.

The milestone is by any global measure a cause to celebrate, with patronage rising 30 per cent over the past six years thanks to a methodical and costly programme of investment.

It is worth remembering that 100 million trips annually is not a record for Auckland.

Cutting the cost of public transport fares won't come cheap

For a decade up to the early 1950's, an Auckland with a population less than a quarter of today's clocked up between 100-120 million public transport trips a year, until the tide turned with the axing of the tram network, and the opening of the first motorways.

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In that era, fewer people had cars, these days most can choose between car and public transport.

For the past couple of decades Auckland has been working on the hardware required of a world-class public transport system.

June 2019's 100 million annual trip milestone will be way short of Auckland's bst

New, frequent electric trains, a properly integrated bus network and the convenience of paying on all modes with a single electronic card.

Every new station, new train, is a tangible sign of where billions of public dollars had gone.

While there's more building to do, the focus is now on the 'software' - cheaper fares and deals, that will shift people faster, out of cars and onto public transport.

The government is looking at one possibility - a discount for those on lower incomes who hold a Community Services Card.

So far the commitment is only to investigate the idea, but it won't come cheap.

An Auckland Transport estimate, priced an improbably high 50 per cent discount at $19 million a year - more than half of that being the added capacity needed to handle the nearly 2 million extra trips, lower fares would generate.

Big shifts in patronage through reductions, are easy targets for critics.

But what is the cost of not boosting access to public transport, and cutting vehicle use which has unquantifiable health, environmental and economic costs.

A wider programme of work between Auckland Council, its transport agency and the government, is looking at accelerating 'mode shift'.

Remember that buzz phrase because it is likely to be the new political battleground.

There is no photo opportunity in rising patronage, no ribbon to cut and no way to scientifically quantify the benefits of success.

Nor is it cheap. Aucklanders using public transport presently pay only 45 per cent of the true cost through fares.

The rest comes from tax and ratepayers.

A bundle of five fare reduction options which Auckland Transport priced-up, were estimated to deliver 10 million trips a year, and cost nearly $92 million.

Everyone wants the patronage rise, even drivers who hope that fewer cars, will mean quicker trips for them.

Finding the funding is the challenge, and delivering it will need political courage on a scale we have not previously seen.

Auckland has made a small but important start, driven by councillors Chris Darby and Richard Hills.

Free weekend travel for under 16s starts in September, and cheaper journeys that include a ferry and connecting legs, from February.

Costing $1.1 million a year, these were the cheapest and easiest measures from a long list of options.

The more courageous steps are next.