Call for greater bus-fare subsidies

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By Stu Oldham on Fri, 9 Jul 2010
News: Dunedin | Your Town: Port Chalmers | ORC | Public transport

An increased council subsidy for regional bus services might reduce the isolation of some Dunedin communities, while boosting how much people have to spend in their local economies, a sustainable living advocate says.

Transition Town Port Chalmers member Nicky Chapman said the Otago Regional Council should have another look at bus subsidies to get people on the outskirts of the city to use public transport.

Cutting fares for the northern and southern suburbs would reduce wear and tear on the roads while minimising people's reliance on relatively expensive cars. That would free up disposable income in their communities.

Mrs Chapman said people paid about $10 a day for a return trip from Port Chalmers to the city. This made public transport too expensive for some.

"When you consider the timing of the buses as well, then the idea of access to an inexpensive service is a big issue for communities outside of the central city.

"Environmental issues, economic issues, and isolation issues could be tackled if we could find a workable solution."

The Otago Regional Council is responsible for tendering bus routes. It splits the cost of contracted services over and above government subsidies so half the difference is paid by transport rates, and the rest is paid by the bus user.

Otago Regional Council policy and resource planning committee chairman Michael Deaker said Mrs Chapman's "affirmative action" idea was worth discussing, but that finding the right formula to justify bigger, targeted subsidies would be hard.

"How would you determine what routes justified a bigger subsidy, and how would you determine the split? Would it be done on distance, on income of people on points along the route, or on loadings? It would be a complex and fraught task," Cr Deaker said.

He was enthusiastic about getting more people to use public transport, but he was not sure how equitable it was to subsidise some people more than others, especially given circumstances may be different for individuals on all routes in the bus network.

Mrs Chapman's group has organised a meeting on public transport, focusing on buses as "the most pressing need". It will be held in the Rolfe Room, near the Port Chalmers Library, at 7pm next Wednesday.

 

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Public transport

Submitted by chirpbird on Sun, 11/07/2010 - 8:25am.

If the Dunedin City Council ran public transport bus services, then bus sevices in particular areas could be subsidised (i.e partially collectively-funded) with a targeted rate (which could be varied according to the relative cost.)

This sounds non-traditional but car transport is already partially collectively-funded. As a non-car owner, I pay for a lot of council expenditure on facilities for cars. So I am already 'subsidising' other people's car use. So no complaints about car-users having to partially subsidise bus use.

There are many other hidden costs of car use besides in rates.
As oil becomes more expensive, the balance between car-users and non-car-users will change. With an increasing number of non-car-users,there will be more and more demands for better public transport.

Don't think we will be saved by more oil being discovered - the issue is the cost of getting it out of the ground. If it costs more than a barrel of oil to extract a barrel of oil, then it will stay in the ground.

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