Auckland Transport losing $12m a month, average alert level 4 train fare cost $626

Friday, 5 November 2021

Auckland mayor Phil Goff hopes for more Government support for the city.

Auckland Transport (AT) is haemorrhaging revenue as the cost of running trains and buses is being outpaced by the amount of money being made in fares due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Figures released to Stuff under the Official Information Act showed the average cost per trip of running a train was $626 and a bus $73, resulting in total revenue being down $6.67 million between August 18 and the end of September.

More than $1.5m has been lost by the city’s rail service, while buses had been shorted $5.1m since the Delta outbreak began. AT said track works were partly to blame for rail services revenue falls.

AT chief executive Shane Ellison said those figures understated its position and the council-controlled organisation's total revenue shortfall, compared with 2019, was probably around $12 to $13 million a month.

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Ellison said AT was forecasting growth to be stunted by more than two years as a result, with losses significant enough that cost-cutting measures might have to be taken if the decline continued for much longer.

'We are looking for support one way or another, from one or both of our funders [council and Government],' Ellison said.

AT CEO Shane Ellison says cost-cutting measures might need to be taken.

Previous support from the Government had not been via AT's normal funder Waka Kotahi, but through the Covid-19 response funding, needing sign-off by Cabinet.

In August, the council-owned agency estimated a revenue loss of $5 million a week from public transport, parking and other areas.

Prior to the current lockdown, AT was receiving just over half a million dollars a week from rail and bus fares combined. That dropped substantially to just over $27,000 a week during alert level 4 and increased slightly to $63,179 when the region lowered restrictions to alert level 3.

Ellison said as the financial year went into its second half, the ability to slow down the impact diminished.

'We are now at November, and the runway is starting to run out.'

Public transport patronage has also dramatically dipped over the same period, with daily passengers in August averaging around 124,000, dropping to just over 20,600 a day in September.

Passenger numbers have slowly increased through October, with the average rising to more than 29,100 a day.

Ellison said the two big lockdowns had set back the forecasted growth in public transport in Auckland by more than two years.

'There is uncertainty about what the economic recovery will look like, will it be like last year or will it be softer.

'We are hoping there will be more confident this time with vaccinations, and our own research, as well as looking overseas shows that,' he said.

Minister of Transport Michael Wood said the outbreak was having a “big impact on communities and councils”.

“Our Government is providing significant support to communities and businesses, and we have recently further increased the support for businesses,” Woods.

He did not give specifics about help for transport operators.

The Government was continuing to look at whether further support was needed across a range of areas, with a focus on Auckland and other places that were “particularly affected by level 3 restrictions”.