Regular, small fare increases necessary

Regular and small increases to Wellington region’s public transport fares over the next few years are needed to meet costs and ensure increases are shared as evenly and fairly as possible, says Peter Glensor, Chair of Greater Wellington’s Economic Wellbeing Committee.

Councillors agreed in principle today to a five year approach of small and regular fare increases. In each year only some fares would change but over the five years all fares would increase by the same amount.

“This would share the impact of the fare increases as evenly as possible. Also, the impact of fare increases is less if you use a smart card, ten trip or monthly ticket rather than paying cash. So I would strongly recommend that people use these payment methods. They have an inbuilt discount so are the most economical way to pay,”  says Peter Glensor.

Councillors confirmed that, subject to negotiations with operators, some bus, train and harbour ferry fares would be increased this October.

Details of the fare increase, which will take effect from 1 October 2012, are:

• Adult multi-trip tickets (ten trip, smartcard and monthly tickets) will all increase by 3%, except for the one-zone fares which remain unchanged.
• Adult cash fares for zones 3-14 will increase by 50c. Other adult cash fares will be unchanged.
• Child multi-trip tickets (ten-trip, smartcard, monthly and term tickets) will all increase by 3% except for one-zone fares which will remain unchanged
• Child cash fares for zone 7-9 and 13-14 will increase by 50c.  All other child cash fares will be unchanged

Peter Glensor says Greater Wellington’s policy and Government policy required the revenue from fares to cover around half of all public transport costs. Costs include day to day operational costs of bus, train and harbour ferry services as well as debt servicing costs for major improvements such as real time information and the Matangi trains.

“Without relatively small and regular fare increases, we’ll fall under that 50% line and this would mean having to catch up with a really big fare increase in a few years’ time. That’s not acceptable; having small and regular increases is more manageable for most people, particularly regular users.”