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Speaker 1: Public transport prices could be on the rise and there's

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Speaker 1: a furious war of letters going on. NZTA has written

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Speaker 1: to councils saying basically, increase your revenue share from your

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Speaker 1: users so that we can support the record level of

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Speaker 1: public transport spending by the government. Greater Wellington says it

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Speaker 1: could see a seventy percent high can fear prices as

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Speaker 1: a result. The move has prompted all public transport authorities

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Speaker 1: aside from Aalkan Transport, to request a meeting with the

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Speaker 1: Transport Minister, Simeon Brown. Darren Pontes, the Greater Wellington Regional

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Speaker 1: cherries with me this morning, Darren, good morning. Really has

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Speaker 1: he written back? Is he going to have a meeting

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Speaker 1: with you guys?

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Speaker 2: No, But we've talked and look, I think we both

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Speaker 2: agreed that the meeting is required. This as quite a

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Speaker 2: significant issue for New Zealand, for public transport users, for

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Speaker 2: any transport users that for that matter.

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Speaker 1: Are you serious when you say, on average, if you're

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Speaker 1: paying ten dollars at the moment you'd per day for

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Speaker 1: public transport in Wellington, you would be paying seventeen from

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Speaker 1: next year if this goes through.

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Speaker 2: We're only using in New Zealand Transport authorities figures to

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Speaker 2: come to that conclusion, correct.

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Speaker 1: And that would need to happen next year.

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Speaker 2: Well, they are saying, they're saying, for example, in the

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Speaker 2: Wellington region that they want us to move from twenty

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Speaker 2: point five percent fairbox recovery to thirty five percent of

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Speaker 2: fairbox recovery by twenty five twenty twenty twenty five, twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty six, So that starts on the first of July

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Speaker 2: next year.

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Speaker 1: Right, So first of July next year, if you're paying

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Speaker 1: about ten bucks, you'll be having to pay seventeen unless

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Speaker 1: you can come to some kind of compromise.

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Speaker 2: Correct, correct, Yeah, and look I think we will. There are,

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Speaker 2: as you probably are aware, ry, and there are many

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Speaker 2: moving parts in public transport. The Minister is effectively saying,

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Speaker 2: or that New Zealand Transport are effectively saying that the

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Speaker 2: amount that comes from the actual users has slipped over

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Speaker 2: the over the years. And that is true, and that

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Speaker 2: is true across the country and a large part of

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Speaker 2: the reason for that is the whole COVID period and

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Speaker 2: the fact that most public transport operators have been very

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Speaker 2: focused on getting people back onto buses.

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Speaker 1: And so you don't want to hide fair. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: want to keep the first as as possible.

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Speaker 2: So what will be Why is product?

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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

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Speaker 1: four percent, the year after forty percent the year after that.

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Speaker 1: Why is your one seem to be so high? Are

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Speaker 1: you paying less? Are your users paying less? As a proportion?

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Speaker 2: Historically we have been able to recover more from the

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Speaker 2: from the farebox. It's it's largely because we provide a

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Speaker 2: more intense public it's a more mature transport network RYAN

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Speaker 2: that has more reliable services, more frequent services, et cetera,

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Speaker 2: et cetera, and as a consequence, we are able to

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Speaker 2: extract a little bit more from the user. If you

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Speaker 2: go out into provincial areas, even historically, you'll find quite

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Speaker 2: a lot of areas that are only at about twenty percent,

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Speaker 2: seventeen percent some of them.

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Speaker 1: Right, can't you just can't you just cut the services

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Speaker 1: that aren't that full.

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Speaker 2: And we will and we will, we will look at

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Speaker 2: those services. All public transport providers will look at those services.

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Speaker 2: But the reality is that public transport is growing quite significantly.

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Speaker 2: We are on our bus network in Wellington. We are

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Speaker 2: getting close to one hundred and ten percent of where

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Speaker 2: we were prior to COVID, so we only need more services,

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Speaker 2: not less.

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Speaker 1: Yeah well yeah, but but I mean someone's got to

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Speaker 1: pay for it, I guess, Darren is the point. We'd

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Speaker 1: love to hear how that meeting goes with the minister.

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Speaker 1: Do let us know Darren pons a the Great Wallington

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Speaker 1: Regional council Ship.

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