End of bus subsidy faulted
Government moves to increase school attendance levels will be seriously undermined by its decision to scrap bus subsidies, a New Plymouth MP says.
From the end of the month, thousands of Taranaki families will have to pay hundreds of dollars to send their children on a school bus.
The Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) announced yesterday that it was reverting to charging full fares for school children after the Government scrapped child and youth concessions that were introduced last year by Labour.
The concessions allowed children aged between 5 and 12 to travel on buses for free, while anyone aged between 13 and 24 travelled at half price.
In 2023 there were 443,630 bus trips taken throughout Taranaki by passengers under the age of 25.
From May 1, anyone using the TRC’S bus service would now have to pay $2 each trip, if they used a Bee Card, or $3 if they were paying cash.
The only excep
tions were children under 5, Community Service Card holders, and those with WITT and Super Gold card concession holders.
The change meant parents would now have to find $760 a year for each child using the bus service to get to school.
Labour list MP Glen Bennett slammed the Government’s decision to scrap the subsidy at the very time it was supposedly trying to get more children to attend school amid increasing truancy numbers.
“It’s completely counter-productive,” he said.
“This Government is talking a big game on school attendance and in the very next breath they are cutting support services that get young children and young people to school.”
Bennett said the concession scheme had received widespread positive feedback since it was introduced by the previous government in July and it simply did not make sense to scrap it.
Last week, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced a crackdown on school truancy levels, signalling the potential to fine parents and introduce weekly attendance reporting by schools.
TRC corporate services director Mike Nield acknowledged the change would affect young people and their families at a time many were struggling with high living costs.
“It would be great if those age-based concessions could continue a little longer, however, with the Government withdrawing funding that is not feasible,” he said.
“The council unfortunately cannot afford to cover that cost ourselves, especially with uncertainty around wider public transport funding and rates already forecast to rise.”
Public transport advocate Suraya Sidhu Singh believed scrapping the concession rates would be a real “punch in the pocket” for a lot of families.
“It will mean more cars at the school gate causing congestion, air pollution and traffic accidents,” she said.
She also believed it was a case of Taranaki being disadvantaged by being lumped in with the main centres in an over-riding policy.
“Part of the justification for getting rid of fare discounts is that they haven’t helped – and it is true patronage hasn’t bounced back to pre-covid levels in the main centres,” she said.
“That’s probably because those main centres have ongoing bus punctuality problems and train service suspensions, whereas in Taranaki bus punctuality is excellent, and so we’ve seen solid patronage growth well beyond pre-covid levels.”
National New Plymouth MP David Macleod did not want to comment on the policy. However, Transport Minister Simeon Brown said in a statement last month he was committed to ensuring targeted support was given to those who most need affordable fares, while balancing this against cost pressures facing the entire transport system.
“That is why those with Community Service Cards and those using Total Mobility services will continue to pay half-price fares.”