Timothy Welch: Cheaper fares won’t fix NZ’s public transport woes

Cheaper fares won’t fix NZ’s public transport woes – and neither will a few extra buses

Last week, within the space of 24 hours, voters heard two very different proposals to improve New Zealand’s public transport system.

On Wednesday, Labour promised to cap weekly fares at NZ$20 in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – and $10 everywhere else – if elected to power in November.

On Thursday, Transport Minister Chris Bishop, of incumbent National, responded by suggesting the government could use its $450 million fuel emergency fund for more trains and buses at peak times.

One policy lowers the price. The other adds service.

Barrie Saunders: Cutting losses – governments too slow to learn

Business generally works out when to cut losses because the risks of failure are too high for shareholders and workers.

Government on the other hand are very slow, regardless of stripe. Grant Robertson got very grumpy with KiwiRail re the ship and ferry land side infrastructure and should have stopped or changed it, one way or the other. Nicola Willis probably acted prematurely without fully thinking through the alternative options which could have included rescoping the land side aspect. Probably still made the right call.

Kerre Woodham: We have a legacy of rail but do we have a future?

Public transport is brilliant when it works. You cannot beat it for convenience, for timeliness, for moving large numbers of people expeditiously and in an environmentally friendly-ish kind of a way, when it works. When it doesn't, it's a pain. Look at the poor Auckland rail commuters this morning – due to an infrastructure issue at Penrose, there were delays and cancellations. No services running through Newmarket on the Southern line, all Southern Line services were running via the Eastern Line, Onehunga line services cancelled until further notice. Just what you need, and not for the first time.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/6/24

Shane Jones and Tama Potaka invite Maori troughers to slurp into a $20m swill and Jones tells us his focus is on … guess what?

Three of the latest posts on the government’s official website result from the Prime Minister’s trip to Japan, aided and abetted by Air New Zealand stepping in to provide transport for him and his entourage after their Defence Force aircraft got them no further than Papua New Guinea.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 24/8/23

“Three Waters” is flushed from recent govt press statements while National promises to flush away the new Three Waters laws

The latest bunch of ministerial statements tells us about a government splashing out on a programme that has delivered school lunches to 100 million school kids.

This comes from Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Education Minister Jan Tinetti, who notably do not mention the cost.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Labour won't build the harbour tunnel

I love the Auckland harbour transport plan, don’t you? Who doesn’t want to get across the harbour more easily and doesn’t want some more roads for cars?

But surely no one believes Labour’s going to do this.

Not only because they can’t deliver jack- do I need to mention KiwiBuild or Light Rail or Let’s Get Wellington Moving- but mainly because no one rational believes Labour actually wants to build expensive roads for cars.

Mike Hosking: Public transport continues to be a joke

If you ever want the perfect example of why this country is in the state it’s in, look at last week's announcement on rail.

Auckland rail is largely out of commission for the next several years. A main form of public transport is up for enormous amounts of disruption.

It varies from line to line. And even if you believe the timeframe around the work, which you shouldn’t, it'll be 2026 before it's all done.