Brian Rudman: Free buses just the ticket - for carless poor

It's rather droll to spot David Tua's name among the 183 celebrities and academics endorsing a region-wide free bus service as the solution to our transport woes. Could this be the same David Tua now in court trying to sort out his own muddled finances?

One lesson you might have thought he's learned in recent months is that nothing in life is free, be it bus services or advice from business partners about buying beach properties.

As a bus user, I wouldn't say no to a free ride. For that matter, I wouldn't say no to free water and electricity and sauvignon blanc piped to my door either.

But wearing my hat as one of the ratepayers or taxpayers who would be lumbered with the inevitable bill for these "free" hand-outs, I'd be up in arms about it. The free bus campaign - brainchild of left-wing Residents Action Movement activists Grant Morgan and Robyn Hughes - got a surprise boost this week when Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis egged on his council's transport committee to call for a trial, possibly, he suggested, in low-income Otara.

Why bother with a new trial? We already have a free bus service up and running in downtown Auckland called the City Circuit. It costs $600,000 a year to run, and that's for just three buses, running limited hours. What Residents Action and the 183 celebrities want is a network of 3000 free buses, criss-crossing the isthmus from early in the morning to late at night, seven days a week.

The group reckons the one-off purchase cost of these 3000 buses would be around $500 million and that operating and replacement costs would total less than $420 million a year. They want to fund it by diverting 40 per cent of the money the Government has earmarked for Auckland roadworks.

Manukau City's transport manager, Chris Freke, in his report, dismissed the submission as "passionate and enthusiastic" but lacking serious analysis and had a dig at the diversity of the celebrities, "ranging from hip hop singers, artists and wormaculturalists through to former international goalkeepers (who, on current form, probably couldn't even catch a bus)".

This flippant comment earned Mr Freke a rap over the knuckles, but you have to sympathise with him. The group's documentation is woefully short of detail.

In his report, Mr Freke pointed to a recent Government paper that estimated free passenger transport would have only a 3 per cent impact on reducing congestion. That report suggested that even free buses didn't offer "the inherent advantages of private motor vehicle use such as privacy and flexibility as to departure times".

The key flaw in the group's dream is the belief that if bus fares are abolished, car-users will abandon their personal vehicles and leap aboard the public conveyances.

I can't imagine that happening for a moment. Auckland bus fares for most people are already less than the first hour or two of parking charges in the city.

Yet people still drive themselves in. Many are in company cars and park in company buildings. Why would they want to swap that for a shared bus seat?

Bus operator Stagecoach finds that on the odd occasion it does a free special day its buses are packed. But one suspects these crowds are regular bus users, taking an extra ride for free. It lures few from their cars. Indeed a free transit service could actually be a turn-off for some. Reports from overseas suggest free buses and trains become havens for the homeless, the confused and the drunk, which is hardly welcoming for the rest.

When I ask car-user friends what would persuade them out of cars and on to public transit - buses included - price doesn't come up. It's the basics. Clean and comfortable conveyances that are regular, punctual and deposit you safely at weather-proof stations.

* Progress report on Jean Batten State Building. Yesterday, after a submission by activist Allan Matson, Auckland City's planning and regulatory committee called for an urgent report "on the matter of a heritage order" for the building which Bank of New Zealand wants to knock down.

Officers were also told to raise the issue of "community consultation" with the bankers.