In what feels like deja vu, Auckland Transport is yet again increasing the fares for public transport. From 7 February about half of all passengers will pay an average 35 cents more for each trip. In 2016 they reworked the fare structure and every year since then fares have gone up. Last year they blamed petrol prices and this year it's COVID19. The reality is that Auckland already has one of the most expensive public transport fares in the world and making it more expensive is only making our transport issues worse.
Auckland Transport and Auckland Council are selling these changes as a win by focusing on the 10% discount for off peak fares. We do have spare capacity in our off peak services and encouraging people to use this is a great way to smooth peak demand. But practically most people commuting to work, school or university will not be able to delay their trips to take advantage of this. They've also introduced a daily fare cap which should be a great way to encourage multiple trips. I’m a big supporter of a daily cap but setting it at $20 a day means it won’t do much to offset the increased costs.
While this decision comes from Auckland Transport, it’s ultimately Auckland Council who are accountable as they set the priorities and budget for the CCO. Auckland Council says it’s aiming to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and with transport making up nearly 40% of Auckland’s carbon footprint, getting people into more efficient forms like public transport is a must. Our council declared a climate emergency in 2019 but has continued to increase the cost of fares, driving people back to private vehicles.
These increases are apparently going to save $4.3m but we're kidding ourselves if we think that this makes good financial sense - congestion alone costs our economy hundreds of millions of dollars a year. A study in 2017 suggested that the cost of congestion in Auckland was $1.3B a year or $3.5m a day in lost productivity. Improving the capacity, design and state of our roads will help address this but to get real change we need to get people onto mass transit.
Public transport won't work for everyone in every situation but it should cater for most people's daily commute. And the more people that use it, the less traffic on the road for those who can't. I use public transport to commute to and from work every day and, while it’s not perfect, it's generally reliable and stress free. We still get stuck in traffic, but I can listen to music or read and the short walk to and from the stops has been good for my physical and mental wellbeing.
Across Auckland we are investing in transport which is fantastic. Many of the biggest projects underway around the city are transport related - CRL, Eastern Busway, Airport to Botany. These projects are delivering the much needed capacity and reliability to the network that we need to cater for our fast growing population.
But all of this will be a massive waste of money if it's too expensive to use! And Auckland Transport knows this, admitting that 556k less trips a year will happen on public transport as a result of these increases. Trips that will end up in private vehicles which means more emissions, congestion and crashes. Our city is growing fast and we're decades behind in transport infrastructure and services, cutting corners now is just kicking the can down the road again, a very congested poorly maintained road.
If Auckland Council and Auckland Transport are serious about addressing climate emissions, reducing congestion and making our city safer they will reduce, not increase the prices for public transport.