Viewpoint – Better travel options

Councils are traditionally pretty good at spending other people’s money. When I became mayor, I wanted to put value for the ratepayer at the centre of all our spending. Times have been tough lately for many families. Every dollar counts. So I asked Auckland Transport (AT) to introduce a $50 weekly fare cap on public transport across the wider region. This comes at a financial cost in terms of lost revenue, but it’s the right thing to do in this economic climate.

The fare cap does two things – it gives people certainty for their weekly budgets and, for many, it saves them a few dollars, too. Travel is free once you’ve paid $50 on your HOP card in a seven-day period. It applies to all AT buses, trains (except Te Huia) and inner harbour ferries.

You’ll know you’ve reached the $50 cap when you see a $0.00 on your card reader. Those travelling longer distances – such as those living in the Warkworth area commuting to the North Shore or city – or who have multiple legs to their journeys can hit the cap pretty quickly, so this gives real benefit.

It’s fantastic to see that more than 20,000 people have already reached the cap and saved money on their travel in the first 10 weeks of the cap coming into effect. Many are saving up to $20 per week. It all adds up over a year.

If you’re using public transport to get to work, for many it will mean free travel across the network on the weekend. You can meet friends or family, have a nice time and not have to worry about driving or parking – all for free!

We’ve seen an increase of over 20 per cent in public transport-use in wider Auckland over the last year. This is good in a number of ways – it reduces traffic congestion, improves travel times and results in much less pollution than when everyone drives their cars. It also creates better economies of scale to allow us to continue investing in new public transport infrastructure. We now have 40 frequent bus routes across the city, up from just nine in 2016.

Having more people on public transport means we can continue expanding the network and keep increasing the frequency and reliability of services. This, in turn, serves to continue making public transport more attractive to use. If you haven’t taken a journey by bus, train or ferry lately, I encourage you to give it a go.

The introduction of the $50 weekly fare cap is just one example of how we can make travel options better and more-responsive to the public’s needs. It’s a great example of how things should work, with council setting strategy and AT then being given the task of implementing it. Sadly, that’s not the way things tend to happen currently. I’m working on fixing that, too. A column for another day, perhaps …