KEY POINTS:
Aucklanders will use public transport when they have confidence in its convenience, speed, reliability and comfort. The success of the Northern Express bus confirms as much. Yet bus patronage throughout the region has declined more than 5 per cent over the past three years, during which time subsidies
to private operators leapt 69 per cent. Local bodies attribute this lamentable state of affairs to their own lack of influence over contracted operators. Unsurprisingly, they have welcomed the Public Transport Management Bill, which was tabled in Parliament this week by the Transport Minister.
The legislation, in making significant changes to the law governing the procurement of bus and ferry services, gives regional councils and their agencies much of what they have been seeking. They are already able to negotiate standards for subsidised routes. This would be extended to services run commercially, usually at peak times, without support from the public purse. Councils could, for example, require operators to use low-emission vehicles and run them on time. They could also ask them to open their books in the interests of transport planning and to ensure only unprofitable services are subsidised.
Most importantly, councillors could insist all urban bus operators accept integrated or seamless passenger tickets. This convenience, which would mean passengers would not have to pay more than one fare for each trip around Auckland, is a minimum requirement for an acceptable public transport system. Private operators should have seen it as a matter of urgency, given they all stand to gain from anything that makes bus travel more attractive. Equally, introducing it should not have posed too great a problem, if only because it is commonplace overseas.
In some ways, therefore, it is hard to quibble with councils gaining these added powers. But it would be folly to suggest it is a total solution. Or that this would be achieved if Auckland's local bodies had gained even greater leverage, as they wanted. In particular, they would have liked to be able to pocket all bus and ferry fares, and to pay operators fees based on passenger numbers, in the same way that urban rail services are managed by the regional transport authority.
The Government heeded the objection of commercial bus operators, who saw this as a step too far, one that could lead to investment being withdrawn. But there was further reason to hesitate. It remains difficult to claim that this heightened degree of control has delivered a particularly reliable passenger rail service. Just because private operators can be instructed to adhere to a certain service standard does not mean it will occur. All aspects of the system must be functioning. Rail patronage, having once gathered a head of steam, is only now recovering from the serious disruptions on the western line. Bus operators already have a commercial incentive to provide an acceptable standard of service. But, whatever the level of requirement, they cannot run on time if they fall foul of traffic congestion.
There is another way. The present contractual system does not cater for competition on bus, ferry and rail routes. But, wherever possible, it should be created between them. Rather than attempting to link modes of transport, parallel services should be encouraged. Bus should compete with rail, not, as is often the case, act as a feeder to it. There would be no private operators in a huff, and no regional council chairmen thinking, misguidedly, of setting up their own bus operation to compete for subsidies. There would be only a greater prospect of a far higher standard of service.