Wellington world's second-cheapest for public transport: report

Monday, 16 September 2024

Greater Wellington Regional councillor and transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash says fare capping is coming for the capital.

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Fare capping is coming for Wellington as new data shows that the capital, by one measure, is second only to Beijing in China for public transport affordability.

But that same data also shows, using another measure, that Wellington is only the 24th cheapest, putting the city’s public transport costs between Sydney in Australia and Taipei, Taiwan.

The difference, in the NineSquared Fares Benchmarking report, is comparing public transport costs for the lowest priced single ticket and how long people have to work on minimum and average wages to pay for it, then the same for a 15km journey – roughly the equivalent of driving from the Wellington railway station to Woburn in Lower Hutt.

Train commuters will soon have their weekly travel costs capped.

A Wellingtonian on the minimum wage has to work for 5.2 minutes to buy the cheapest ticket, while someone on the average wage has to work for three minutes. Only Beijing, where a minimum wage worker has to work for 2.3 minutes is cheaper.

But minutes worked for a 15km journey – 12.9 minutes on the minimum wage and 7.3 minutes on an average wage – plonked the capital in 24th spot between Sydney and Taipei.

Greater Wellington Regional Council transport committee chairperson Thomas Nash said it was the longer journeys where passengers had not returned post-Covid. Mondays and Fridays were particularly quiet on trains.

The council was “definitely” introducing fare capping for the longer journeys and it would likely be introduced late in 2025 or early in 2026, he said.

Wellington bus travel bounced back after Covid but trains have not done so well.

It would come with a “national ticketing solution”, meaning people could use a debit card to tap on to any public transport and the most they could be charged would be capped for the day or week.

Wellington could probably not afford the same generous cap Auckland commuters had of $50 per week, but the final figure was still to be confirmed. It would likely be higher for people with longer commutes, he said.

Getting people out of cars on the longer journeys had the highest benefits, he said.

A dollar-figure has been put on the promise for new commuter trains for the Wairarapa and Manawatū line. But the regional councils might not get hybrid trains, after all.

“A really important element of fare capping is that as well as making public transport more affordable and incentivising more use of buses and trains to take pressure off the roads and car parking, etc, it gives people predictability,” Nash said.

“So you'll always the know the maximum you are spending per day and per week and will always automatically get the cheapest fare available to you.”

The change should be revenue-neutral as the lower spend per person should be balanced by an increase in passengers, he said.

NineSquared director Robin Barlow said Wellington was higher for longer journeys because public transport was changed for on a “zonal” fare system.

“Many of the cities that it slid past on its way to the 28th place are flat fare systems … so it does not matter how far your travel, the price is still the same.

“Generally zonal systems are higher up the table for shorter trips but suffer when the trips being compared are longer.”

Right now, people could travel the 186km from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast in Australia for 50 cents (54 NZ cents).

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