Other centres have recorded increased patronage on buses but Dunedin is not climbing too quickly, if at all.
Otago Regional Council regional planning and transport general manager Anita Dawe said for the financial year from July to the end of May, bus patronage was down by 0.8% year on year.
However, when comparing the March to May figures for this year with the corresponding period last year, this changes to a 2% uplift in patronage.
Full month June figures would add to the picture.
April and May were difficult to compare because of Easter holidays/school holidays and weekends not occurring at the same time in the previous year.
May this year has five weekends, meaning lower patronage than May last year with four weekends.
In Queenstown, the entire network is up by 7%, with similar levels of month-on-month growth up to the end of March this year.
Patronage for both April and May is 11% higher than the previous year, a marked uplift in the growth trend.
“While it’s not possible to conclusively attribute this increase to the fuel crisis, the timing and scale of the uplift suggest it may have contributed to higher public transport use,” she said.
Across other cities, patronage is on the up.
Canterbury is asking the government for $5 million to improve public transport as patronage rises.
Metro Christchurch experienced a 10% increase in people using public transport in April, compared with the same month last year, with 120,000 more passengers, RNZ reported.
Environment Canterbury public transport general manager Stewart Gibbon said some people missed out on bus trips as there was simply no room on board.
Figures from Auckland Transport showed bus patronage had returned to pre-pandemic levels, with about 7.5million trips taken in March alone.
Students and weekend travellers were driving much of the growth, with bus use up 6% compared with the same time last year, One News reported.
