Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher had lobbied strongly for the regional council to provide a bus service to Oamaru during its recent annual plan submissions but said he recognised the challenges of funding it.
"There’s a lot of calls from other areas wanting to expand their services. For us, obviously, it’s about starting a service and it’s really difficult if the co-funder, [NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi] NZTA, doesn’t have the money there.
"Fundamentally, that’s the issue and it’s something that the government has to address because it’s causing issues not just with public transport, but with projects everywhere.
"It would just be too expensive if ORC paid for the whole thing themselves without the co-funding. It would just be too costly on our ratepayers."
Mr Kircher had also submitted to the regional council about providing a connecter service between central Oamaru and the North End.
He said the service would need to be funded by ORC, not the district council.
"Again, it would come at a cost and public transport doesn’t cover its costs, unfortunately. So, there has to be some other money coming from somewhere and with all of the pressure on rates, that’d be a difficult thing for the [district] council to be able to underwrite. It is a regional council responsibility."
Mr Kircher said he was meeting with regional council representatives and would be talking about what other opportunities there might be to "make something happen".
ORC chairwoman Gretchen Robertson said the council remained committed to connecting Oamaru.
"Some regional upgrades will not happen due to co-funding gaps, but we’re committed to finding ways to improve connectivity options for Ōamaru, Balclutha and Central Otago," she said.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop said public transport was funded from both public and private revenue sources, noting government funding for public transport in Otago has increased from $90 million to $125m.
"Private share refers to the proportion of funding that comes from private sources, including fares paid by passengers, advertising on buses, bus stops, trains, train stations, as well as other commercial opportunities like renting or leasing commercial space," he said.
"The Government Policy Statement on land transport 2024 [GPS 2024] sets the expectation that there will be increases in private share revenue to support the growing operational costs for public transport, as well as to reduce the burden on ratepayers and taxpayers.
"Under the previous government the private share revenue dropped as low as 10%, meaning far more of the costs had to be covered by taxpayers and ratepayers.
"To reach agreement on targets, NZTA asked PTAs [public transport authorities] to show they had considered methods appropriate to each region that did not drive adverse outcomes such as patronage decline."
