CITY bus fares are on the move.
The cost of inner city and one-section trips could increase by 50 cents in September.
Greater Wellington Regional Council recommended a 50% hike for inner city travelling, which currently costs $1 and will go up to $1.50, and a 25% increase for a one-section trip from $1.50 to $2.
These small travelling distances on buses and trains have borne the brunt of the Regional Council’s proposed 3% overall public transport increase.
 GWRC’s transport man Brian Baxter says inner-city fares haven’t been changed in the past 10 years and the price changes are necessary to “balance the books”.
Each year, the council aims to have 45% to 50% of Wellington public transport cost paid for by passengers, and the remainder carried by ratepayers, says Baxter.
“At the moment I think we’re at 47% funded by passengers, but it’s predicted to drop, it’s on a downward trend,” he says. “We needed the 3% increase in revenue to balance it.”
The city and one-section fare zones were chosen to carry most of the rise because they weren’t affected by the last fare change in September 2008, which hit the middle zones such as four and five zone trips, he says.
Baxter adds the Regional Council hopes the move encourages bus users to take advantage of the 10-trip tickets and Snapper cards, which offer around a 20% discount on each trip.
Lambton Ward Wellington City Councillor Iona Pannett says, “our aim is that public transport should be competitive price-wise with a private car. [At the moment] it is for the longer journeys, but it’s not for the shorter ones.”
The change in fares could also see Wellington public transport be more expensive than Auckland’s, which currently has a 50-cent inner city bus fare, while one “stage” is $1.70.
Christchurch runs on a different fare system, and charges a flat rate of $2.80 for all travel around the city.
“Christchurch lends itself to that sort of fare because it’s a nice flat city, whereas we have a more graduated system like Auckland,” says Baxter.
Both Auckland and Christchurch have a free bus that does a set route of the inner-city, and is mainly used by tourists.
Baxter says any talk of free public transport in Wellington’s city is a nice idea, but the “free” has to come from somewhere, and that could be rates.
He says the Regional Council has discussed the idea of charging for parking during the weekends and offsetting the costs for free public transport with Wellington City Council (which controls parking), but there would be complications.
“The retailers like having parking around town,” he says. “Our budgets are under a lot of pressure, and people don’t want rate increases because they’re hurting from the recession, and at the same time we’re trying to buy all these new trains. Everything comes at a cost.”