Source: Radio New Zealand
File photo. RNZ / Mark Papalii
Public transport is experiencing a boom, with commuters flooding onboard while fuel costs soar, and passenger numbers set to tumble.
Last week 91 octane petrol had risen 55 cents a litre since the beginning of the Iran war, with diesel up 90 cents in the same time, hitting personal and commercial budgets amid an existing cost-of-living crunch. And a string of commuters in the main centres told RNZ they were turning to public transport to help cut costs.
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Passengers numbers have grown for both buses and trains in Wellington, the Greater Wellington Regional council says.
Prior to this year, there had been a six percent decrease in public transport use year-on-year. But now, both the price of fuel and ongoing major traffic disruption from construction on Lower Hutt’s RiverLink project had turned that around.
It means the Wellington Region is expected to have its highest day ever for public transport use in the next couple of weeks.
The steep trajectory of fuel costs meant the cost of driving 15 kilometres in Auckland reached nearly double the cost of taking public transport last week, Auckland Transport said – without parking costs factored in.
And the Auckland public transport uptick has already reached records, with Tuesday the busiest day since 2019, councillor Richard Hills said.
Passenger numbers were seven percent higher than the previous Tuesday, and had 7000 more trips than the previous busiest day.
“It’s great to see more people choosing public transport and trying it out,” Hills said.
Wellington public transport challenges levelling as demand increases
Wellington “has had a hard road for public transport patronage over the last couple of years”, said the regional council’s transport committee chairperson Ros Connolly.
“We’ve had a number of headwinds, you know. We’ve had working from home, we’ve had quite high numbers of unemployment in the Wellington region, and the cost of living has all meant that our public transport numbers haven’t been as high as we would have liked them to be. So year-on-year we’ve had about a 6 percent year-on-year decrease.
But in recent weeks, “that number has absolutely turned around,” she said.
“We’ve definitely seen the impact of higher fuel prices on people’s transport decisions …So unlike Auckland, we haven’t quite topped our highest day since 2019, but we can say we are getting close, and we’re confident that in the next fortnight, if things continue to track the way they have, that we will see Wellington experience that record number.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
