Will cheaper fares fix public transport usage?
ANALYSIS: In the ongoing daily tribulations of many Auckland public transport users, a move by the biggest ferry operator Fullers360 is food for thought.
Fullers’ Waiheke Island run is a purely commercial service running outside of public transport contracts, and faces huge queues of daytrippers on weekends, with emptier vessels off-peak.
All of that happens in a time of crew shortages which has constrained sailings and increased cancellations.
The company has halved offpeak fares from this week, to try to shift patronage away from the most popular sailings.
Whether it makes a difference remains to be seen, but it is a market-driven approach which Auckland Transport (AT) should be watching closely.
AT’s public transport bus, train and ferry services face the same issue as Fullers’ Waiheke Island run, a persistent driver shortage which has left weekday bus services 2000 trips fewer than a year ago.
Despite a post-pandemic slump in patronage of about 25%, many peak routes are crowded with some leaving passengers behind.
AT’s response to reduced patronage, and the financial squeeze of lower revenue, has been to raise fares by more than 7% for most travellers, starting on April 2 – the same day Fullers halves theirs off-peak.
The lure to travel off-peak with AT is a modest 10% discount, and an initiative flagged earlier in the year to introduce a $29 a week fare cap is still in the backroom.
Auckland Transport is not a business, and public transport is a service, a piece of social and economic infrastructure which needs to be there, even if it loses money – which it does.
Programming new fare structures into the French-run AT HOP ticketing system is not cheap, meaning that chopping and changing fares is costly.
Also AT is running with public money, from both ratepayers and taxpayers, which may be one reason it has been ultraconservative in adding the kinds of discounts common in overseas cities.
But innovation and a little risk-taking in trying to get more people onto public transport more often might be worth trying.
The occasional fare-free promotions lifted patronage on the days they operated, meaning there are things that will attract more people to the public transport with big investment.
Fullers360 is a private business and at the end of each year it needs to show a profit for its owner, and the quest to achieve that means a sharp focus on how to attract business.
With a rail network impaired for most of the year through track rebuilding, and the ongoing driver shortage, AT has some big challenges, but that might be the time to be bolder in trying to build its own ‘‘business’’.
It is hard to know whether this is the ideal time for AT innovation, or the least likely moment to give something a go.
The agency has been spooked by the arrival of mayor Wayne Brown, whose public demands for board director heads to roll led to three departing voluntarily, including the former chairperson.
Brown’s decision not to meet a prospective new chief executive, recruited from the United Kingdom, caused that candidate to withdraw, leaving the agency with a temporary stand-in.
From April, a new fixed-term chief executive Dean Kimpton takes the helm, with a strategic review of the agency high on the agenda.
Whether that accelerates or slows innovation in the short term remains to be seen.
In the meantime, Fullers360 will publicly test the power of big discounts in changing travel patterns.