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.

Cam Slater: It Seems We Are Led by Donkeys

In the UK there is a constant billboard and social media campaign as stubborn, stuoud and intransigent politicians are called #LedByDonkeys. Now it seems that we need a similar campaign here in New Zealand, especially after Michael Wood decided to share with us all that his spirit animal is a donkey.

Karl du Fresne: What history tells us about long-distance passenger trains

My Sydney-domiciled friend and former colleague Robin Bromby, a lifetime railways enthusiast, co-founder of Rails magazine and author of New Zealand Railways: Their Life and Times, sent the following comment on my post about the Restore Passenger Rail fantasists:

Here’s something that the Restore Passenger Rail mob might not like to hear: the body mainly responsible for the demise of passenger trains (and railcars) over the length and breadth of New Zealand was — wait for it — New Zealand Railways (NZR) itself, and that process began almost 100 years ago. It favoured buses for moving people! New Zealanders didn’t much like trains either: since the 1920s, whenever they had an alternative option to trains for travel, they took it. And this applied both to long distance trains and suburban commuter services.