Public transport goals being revised down by 5m trips

The Auckland Council is revising down its public transport goals next year from 83 million trips to 78 million.

The targets are being reviewed at a budget meeting today.

They follow the figures for September released yesterday by Auckland Transport showing an 8 per cent rise over the same period last year, which Mayor Len Brown said reflects progress with rail electrification and the Hop card rollout.

In the last year there were 70 million public transport trips.

Councillor George Wood said the latest target for 78 million trips was a bit stretched.

Rail trips have been cut back from the old target of 16.1 million trips to 13 million - in the year when new electric trains come on stream.