Has the  proposed new Dunedin bus fare system gone far enough, asks Peter Dowden.

It's hard not to like the proposed generously funded simplification of the bus ticketing system. Commuters as far away as Mosgiel and Port Chalmers will have their rides reduced to a straightforward flat fare of $2, which will include a free transfer to a second bus on the way.

A convenient new card will allow passengers to tag themselves on and off the bus, speeding up loading and providing bus managers with valuable travel data.

Buried in the detail of this rejig of fares are some sharp increases that must not be overlooked. Tertiary students and passengers with disabilities will have their fare discounts abolished and merged in with the general adult population. Long-distance travellers in this category will still be better off but those travelling a shorter distance, within one "zone" under the present system, get a hefty 16% increase.

But it is school pupils who face the steepest fare hike. Travel to a child’s nearest school by bus will soar by 30%. This is an unprecedented price gouge. The Otago Regional Council has never, in all the years since its foundation in 1986, inflated anyone’s bus fare by so much.

The child fare increase ups the cost of education by $35 a term, or $140 a year. And that’s just for one child. For three children, a family will need to find another $105 per term out of existing budgets. If uniforms or school books went up by this sort of amount, we would all be hearing about it. It is a stunning act to bring forward this sort of increase during a pandemic crisis that Standard and Poor’s calls a "severe economic and fiscal shock to New Zealand", finance minister Grant Robertson calls a "quantum economic shock" and World Bank president David Malpass calls a "devastating blow" and a "catastrophe".

The flat fare system is praised by the Otago Regional Council as "easier" and "simpler" as if families would rather pay a nice round figure for their travel than save a few cents per trip. Perhaps they perceive the public as asking "please sir, round up our fares to a nice round figure to make the arithmetic easier." (The nicest, roundest figure of all is zero, which the regional council is charging everyone at the moment, showing how the once unthinkable concept of free travel for all can be realised.)

The way the benefits of this big spend of taxpayers’ and ratepayers’ funds are proposed to be distributed does not bear much political analysis. A traveller with a disability has to pay $7.50 more per month to attend daily training or treatment. A student travelling from High St to the university pays $21 more a semester, while a professor from Highgrove pays $63 less. It costs a family in Kinmont $35 more per term to send their teenager to Taieri College but $33 less to send her to Columba College.

And why are we charging children anything to travel to their nearest school? Most parts of Otago are served by free, fully taxpayer-funded rural school buses for their children.

Our regional councillors need to consider carefully who is missing out under this generally excellent proposal. The public has an opportunity to tell the regional council how they feel. Short-distance travellers would be advised to put in a submission on the ORC website.

 - Peter Dowden is a Dunedin bus driver and public transport lobbyist.