Wellington Commuter Posts

Published 06 Sep 2020

Wellington City Cheated by GWRC run Public Transport

Wellington City has the worst PT services yet pays the highest fares and the highest Transport Rates.

* About 20 cents in every dollar of fare paid by Wellington City Bus riders actually goes to help fund poorly used bus services in the rest of region
* About 40 cents in every dollar paid by Wellington City, Lower Hutt City and Porirua city residential ratepayers goes to subsidise expensive rail and poorly used bus services in Upper Hutt, Kapiti and especially the Wairarapa
* In 2017/18, Wellington City ratepayers outside the CBD paid 20% of the region’s Transport Rates and this more than pays for Wellington City public transport (PT) services. … Read more ...

Public Transport

Bus Cost Bus Funding Fares Rail Cost Rail Funding Transport Tax

Published 23 Feb 2020

Wellington City and Lower Hutt Cheated by Public Transport Rates

* Understanding the funding of bus and rail services is an essential part of understanding the value of spending $301M on bus and rail services to different parts of the Wellington Region

* Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) collects about $70M in Transport Rates to help make up the difference between fares and bus/rail costs – but not all ratepayers are being charged equally.… Read more ...

Public Transport

Transport Tax Wellington Bus Wellington Rail

Published 17 Jul 2019

Wellington City Cheated by Public Transport Fares

* Wellington City Bus Users pay a much higher percentage of the cost of their bus service than the rest of the Greater Wellington Region
* This means Wellington City bus users are being overcharged by millions every year to support bus services in other cities
* Wellington City bus fares are too high and could be reduced by changing from 3 zones to 2 zones for the city

Wellington City has High Public Transport Fares

[Note: The information in this post is the basis for the DomPost story “Wellington City bus commuters ‘ripped off’ by new bus network and higher fares” also published today.]… Read more ...

Public Transport

Better Metlink Fares Review Fares Wellington Bus

Published 03 Jun 2019

Wellington City Cheated by Public Transport Performance

* When it is finally working, is the new Wellington bus network better than the previous?

* This post compares the pre-July 2018 bus timetables with current timetables, and evidence shows that the new peak bus service is often less frequent and slower than it was before.  … Read more ...

Public Transport

PT Performance Wellington Bus

Published 02 Jul 2018

GWRC quietly robs Wellington City Residents of Million$

  • The Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) has finalised its Long Term Plan including key decisions on rates funding
  • Regional council final decisions on Transport Rates and rates funding for flood protection mean a multi-million dollar increase in their rates demand for Wellington City … Wellington City residents are worst hit
  • The GWRC will now increase the average Wellington City Household rates bill by over $200/year … and no-one noticed!
… Read more ...

Public Transport

Transport Tax

Published 12 Jun 2018

Winners and losers from the Change in the GWRC Transport Rate

  • The GWRC is changing how the Transport Rates that fund the regions PT service is allocated to ratepayers. They claim that this change means “Hutt Valley, South Wairarapa and Porirua pay a bit less toward public transport than they do now, while residents in Wellington city, Kāpiti and Masterton pay a bit more”.
… Read more ...

Public Transport

Transport Tax

Published 01 Jun 2018

Have PT costs really gone up to justify the July Fare Increase claimed by the GWRC ?

The Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) claims Wellington public transport commuters needs a fare increase to fund cost increases.  So what happened to the many millions in cost savings they previously announced when they awarded the rail service to TransDev and most of the bus services to Transit ?… Read more ...

Public Transport

Fares

Published 31 May 2018

The Fare Increase is only needed because the GWRC has added Rail Costs

  • In the Farebox Recovery Calculations, Rail Operating Costs have increased by $17.9M.
  • However, only $8.4M of rail costs were funded as Direct Operating Costs in 2017/18
  • Over half the $17.9M rail operating cost increase is from an additional rail cost item. 
… Read more ...

Public Transport

Fares Rail Cost

Published 23 May 2018

They saved over $18M on the buses so are bus users now paying too much ?

  • The new fares will lead to a net loss of $3.0M in Bus Fare Revenue and $2.7M in Rail Fare Revenue.
  • Bus fare revenue is paying a much higher percentage of bus operating costs than rail fare revenue is for rail costs  This means that for every $1.00 a Wellington bus user pays in fares, 9 cents will be going towards the cost of rail services.
… Read more ...

Public Transport

Fares

Published 22 May 2018

What do you mean you saved $18M on Buses but spent it on the Trains ?

  • In 2016 the GWRC announced it expects a multi-million dollar PT cost saving from its new passenger rail PTOM contract with TransDev.
  • In 2017 the GWRC announced it also expects multi-million dollar PT cost savings from its new bus PTOM contracts.
… Read more ...

Public Transport

Fares