Fares on Wellington’s public transport network will remain, partly due to increased patronage
A planned public transport fare increase for the Wellington region has been avoided due to favourable financial results over the last six months.
Greater Wellington Regional Council decided not to increase public transport fares at a meeting to hear and deliberate on submissions on its draft Annual Plan for 2014/15.
Public Transport portfolio leader Paul Swain says council’s draft Annual Plan proposed some fare increases to cover increased costs.
“Due to favourable financial results since Christmas, mainly due to reduced train running costs and better than expected passenger numbers, we won’t need to increase fares after all,” he says.
Council reviews public transport fares every year and has a policy of small, annual fare increases rather than very occasional large increases.
“The Regional Council has invested heavily in rail over the last few years. We expected that rail patronage would grow as a result,” says Swain.
“The Wellington public has shown their faith in public transport and as a result the council is able to return a dividend to them by not raising fares this year.”
Bus patronage has also increased but the Regional Council doesn’t get any financial benefit from that.