Confirmed: Auckland Bus Fares Up 2-3%, Train Up 5-7%

in General by Jon C — February 10, 2010 at 5:47 pm | 8 comments

ARTA this afternoon confirmed that bus and train fares will rise from February 21.

Bus fares for single and ten trip tickets will increase between 2 to 3 per cent and rail fare increases on average between 5 to 7 per cent.

This follows the revelation here today of the news thanks to reader Andrew spotting some changes in the fares on the Maxx site. Full details are here.

At the lower end of single ticket fares, there are some increases above 3 per cent on bus and above 7 per cent on rail due to the minimum possible price increment of ten cents.

ARTA’s Chief Executive, Fergus Gammie, says Mr Gammie said, rail fares have been increased more than single and ten trip bus tickets for a number of reasons.

“Historically rail fares in Auckland have sat lower than bus fares however significant improvements have now been made by ARTA to Auckland’s commuter rail services.

“Price increases have been spread across ticket types.

Our customer research shows us that conservatively 63% of our customers purchase single, ten trip tickets and multi-pass rail fares, hence the lowest fare increases have been made for the bulk of our customer’s purchases while slightly higher increases have been made by some of our commercial operators for their already heavily discounted bus and ferry multi-trip passes.

“Independently from these increases some multi- use concession passes will be increased in price by bus operators and some ferry operators. These passes have always been heavily discounted by operators and even with fare increases a significant level of discount, often up to 40%, remains, making these passes a great value for money choice.

He said an example of the rail change is a 30c increase from $6.30 to $6.60 from Papakura to the CBD.

“Travelling from Papakura to the CBD on a weekly basis, the weekly cost of running a car comes in at $142 per week against $66 for using the train. This is a weekly savings of $76 and an annual saving of $3,648 which is fairly substantial.

“If we look at car versus bus travel from Highbury on the North Shore to Britomart on a weekly basis, travelling by bus saves $24 a week with car travel costing $57 a week including a conservative $8.00 per day for parking.  Annual savings by using public transport, in this instance are $1157.

Mr Gammie, says that over the last three years, since the last rise,  the costs associated with running transport fleets have increased by around 11%, such as changing emission standards requiring improved vehicles and increased labour costs, which have been absorbed until now.

FULL DETAILS; Maxx

Tags: ARTA fares