Dearer diesel, higher wages push up bus fares

Bus users in Auckland have been given three days' notice of a 10 per cent fare rise which will result in some passengers paying up to $1.50 more per trip.

The 10 per cent average increase approved by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority will start on Sunday as bus companies update their fares.

The authority will review rail and ferry operating costs, which could mean users of those services will pay more for their journeys.

The bus fare increase follows an annual review of service costs and is attributed to higher diesel prices and wages. Fares last went up in August last year when they rose by 8 per cent.

The latest increase will hit around 150,000 passengers who use the buses each day.

New fares have yet to be set for Birkenhead Transport and Ritchies Transport but are now confirmed for Howick and Eastern Buses, Urban Express, Waiheke Buses and Stagecoach.

Casual passengers will find fares go up on each stage apart from the inner city 50c ride.

The city's Link service will cost $1.50, up from $1.30, while casual child and senior citizen fares rise between 10c and 70c, depending on how many stages are travelled.

Weekly and monthly fares will also increase, with one stage concession tickets rising go up $1.50 from $11.50 to $13, while two stage concession tickets will go up $3 and three stage tickets increase $4.

The increased fares could put more pressure on the industry, which has experienced falling patronage.

Stagecoach New Zealand marketing manager Russell Turnbull admitted the increases were likely to result in more passengers choosing to leave public transport.

"We've been at the sharp end of rail improvements and a drop-off in foreign students. We've suffered more than most," Mr Turnbull said.

After a decade of growth, passenger numbers are falling. In the 12 months to June, they dropped about 5.5 per cent.

Mr Turnbull said fewer foreign student passengers, industrial action, and competition from rail - which carried 36 per cent more people in August than the previous August - had caused the decline.

Stagecoach bus drivers went on strike in May, disrupting services before winning a 14.8 percent pay rise.

Mr Turnbull said buses were also finding it harder to compete with improved rail services.

"Obviously at some point they will have to be looking at their costs and fares on rail as well," Mr Turnbull said.

Stagecoach receives $40.6 million in subsidies from ARTA which Mr Turnbull said went to keeping buses on the road and maintaining peak hour services.

" If you took that subsidy to cover the fare increase you'd just have to move the cost somewhere else."

ARTA's General Manager Passenger Services Heather Haselgrove said bus operators had been "screaming out" to have a fare increase approved.

A review by PriceWaterhousecoopers identified diesel costs as having increased 40 per cent.

She said bus fares had increased without effect on patronage 15 months ago and she expected the latest rises to have little impact. She said a review of ferry and rail fares was also imminent.

"It's $80 to fill up your tank of petrol now. People are experiencing these costs themselves and they can do the sums.

"Public transport continues to be good value when compared to the cost of petrol and parking and it is even better value if it means a family does not need to buy a second car."

But one bus user last night calculated that the new fares widened the gap between the cost of taking public transport and taking his car into work.

"At the moment it's already proving uneconomical to take public transport," he said in a posting on the Rideline web forum about his journey from Meadowbank to East Tamaki.

Because his new monthly bus fare will be increasing from $75 to $99 and as he will have to pay $104 instead of $88 for a weekly ticket, it now made more sense to take the car, the commuter wrote.

"It is nonetheless a little disappointing, since I am a public transport advocate."

The announcement yesterday came as oil companies shaved three cents a litre off the price of 91-octane petrol.

- additional reporting Errol Kiong