Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Darran Ponter: Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair says higher revenue targets will hike public transport fare prices

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Darran Ponter: Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair says higher revenue targets will hike public transport fare prices · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Public transport prices could be on the rise and there's
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a furious war of letters going on. NZTA has written
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to councils saying basically, increase your revenue share from your
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: users so that we can support the record level of
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: public transport spending by the government. Greater Wellington says it
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: could see a seventy percent high can fear prices as
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a result. The move has prompted all public transport authorities
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: aside from Aalkan Transport, to request a meeting with the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Transport Minister, Simeon Brown. Darren Pontes, the Greater Wellington Regional
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: cherries with me this morning, Darren, good morning. Really has
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: he written back? Is he going to have a meeting
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: with you guys?
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: No, But we've talked and look, I think we both
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: agreed that the meeting is required. This as quite a
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: significant issue for New Zealand, for public transport users, for
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: any transport users that for that matter.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Are you serious when you say, on average, if you're
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: paying ten dollars at the moment you'd per day for
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: public transport in Wellington, you would be paying seventeen from
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: next year if this goes through.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: We're only using in New Zealand Transport authorities figures to
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: come to that conclusion, correct.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: And that would need to happen next year.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, they are saying, they're saying, for example, in the
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Wellington region that they want us to move from twenty
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: point five percent fairbox recovery to thirty five percent of
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: fairbox recovery by twenty five twenty twenty twenty five, twenty
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: twenty six, So that starts on the first of July
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  Speaker 2: next year.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Right, So first of July next year, if you're paying
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: about ten bucks, you'll be having to pay seventeen unless
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: you can come to some kind of compromise.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Correct, correct, Yeah, and look I think we will. There are,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: as you probably are aware, ry, and there are many
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: moving parts in public transport. The Minister is effectively saying,
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: or that New Zealand Transport are effectively saying that the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: amount that comes from the actual users has slipped over
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the over the years. And that is true, and that
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: is true across the country and a large part of
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: the reason for that is the whole COVID period and
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: the fact that most public transport operators have been very
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: focused on getting people back onto buses.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: And so you don't want to hide fair. Yeah, you
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: want to keep the first as as possible.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: So what will be Why is product?
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Why is Wellington so high? Because you look at Auckland,
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  Speaker 1: they're only required thirty percent I think next year thirty
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: four percent, the year after forty percent the year after that.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Why is your one seem to be so high? Are
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you paying less? Are your users paying less? As a proportion?
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Historically we have been able to recover more from the
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: from the farebox. It's it's largely because we provide a
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: more intense public it's a more mature transport network RYAN
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: that has more reliable services, more frequent services, et cetera,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: et cetera, and as a consequence, we are able to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: extract a little bit more from the user. If you
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: go out into provincial areas, even historically, you'll find quite
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of areas that are only at about twenty percent,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: seventeen percent some of them.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Right, can't you just can't you just cut the services
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: that aren't that full.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And we will and we will, we will look at
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: those services. All public transport providers will look at those services.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: But the reality is that public transport is growing quite significantly.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: We are on our bus network in Wellington. We are
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: getting close to one hundred and ten percent of where
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: we were prior to COVID, so we only need more services,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: not less.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah well yeah, but but I mean someone's got to
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: pay for it, I guess, Darren is the point. We'd
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: love to hear how that meeting goes with the minister.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Do let us know Darren pons a the Great Wallington
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Regional council Ship.
• 4:02
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