Candidates say Stagecoach has cheap UK fares at our expense

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

The price of bus tickets has become a target in Auckland's local body elections.

Left-wing regional council candidates claim bus company Stagecoach is bankrolling ultra-low fares in Britain with fares it charges in Auckland.

The Residents Action Movement ticket of eight council candidates says the company is selling seats from London to Scotland for 60 times less a kilometre than concession fares on Auckland routes.

It bases its claim on a £1 ($2.72) fare available for early bookings for 15 per cent of seats on Scottish-base Stagecoach's Megabus service from the British capital to Glasgow, a distance of 644km, in cut-throat competition with low-cost rivals.

Not included in the group's calculation is a recent extension of the deal to the Scottish Highlands city of Inverness, a good 925km from London.

Seats have to be bought several weeks in advance with a 50p booking fee, but even a full fare of £12 to Inverness is a great deal by New Zealand standards.

Action movement spokesman Grant Morgan called the difference between Stagecoach's British and New Zealand fares scandalous.

He said a Stagecoach bus from his Mangere Bridge home to central Auckland, a journey of little more than 10km, cost him $4.60 - more than the minimum price for travelling the length of England and into Scotland.

Mr Morgan did not take account of Stagecoach's discounted monthly pass, down from $80 to $49 for unlimited travel within each of its Auckland zones or from $129 to $79 for anywhere in the region, as this was just a short-term special between August and October.

He called for an inquiry into Stagecoach's fares by the regional council.

Council members Brian Smith and Paul Walbran have written to Mr Morgan expressing interest in knowing whether profits made in Auckland are used to subsidise British passengers, and Sandra Coney has assured him she voted strenuously against fare rises here.

"It seemed insane to me that the ARC would contemplate fare increases at a time of falling patronage," Ms Coney wrote.

The council voted in closed session in July to allow all subsidised Auckland bus operators to raise fares last month by an average of 7.8 per cent.

Although these were the first in almost four years, when accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated costs rose 13.3 per cent, they followed a 1.8 per cent drop in Auckland bus patronage in the 12 months to June 30 after years of strong growth.

But Stagecoach New Zealand executive director Ross Martin said there could be no comparison between inter-city routes in Britain with its far larger population and urban services in this country, and he denied any profits were sent overseas.

Mr Martin said his operation had yet to return a dividend to its British owners, despite having operated in Auckland since 1998, when it had to raise loans to buy its fleet from the publicly owned Yellow Bus Company.

He said it had so far ploughed whatever profits it made into buying ever more buses, as the owners had been "passionate" about increasing patronage with relatively low public subsidies compared with what were available to transport operators in other countries.

Ticket to ride

* Auckland Regional Council pays an annual subsidy to Stagecoach to encourage public transport.

* The council pays 49 per cent of a $35 million subsidy to the company, with Transfund covering the rest.

* Stagecoach estimates that the average subsidy in Auckland is less than $1 a passenger, compared with up to $2.50 in parts of Australia.