Ratepayer subsidies for train and\u00a0ferry services\u00a0have soared from $510 million to nearly $750m over the past five years, Auckland councillors heard yesterday.<\/p>\n
The cost of subsidising each public transport user has nearly doubled from $3.27 to $6.30 over five years, according to a report by Auckland Transport to the council\u2019s transport, resilience and infrastructure committee.<\/p>\n
For\u00a0bus services, the subsidy has increased from $2.72 to $4.70, train services from $4.56 to $12.01, and ferry services from $11.86 to $18.07. Buses account for about 75% of public transport journeys with trains accounting for about 20% and ferries for 5%.<\/p>\n
The cost of running public transport is met through fares,\u00a0NZ Transport Agency\u00a0and council subsidies, and commercial activities like advertising.<\/p>\n
The report said while patronage had recovered to 86% before Covid, even at full recovery would require \u201csignificantly higher subsidies than in 2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis presents a critical financial sustainability challenge for funding partners, particularly as Auckland maintains relatively affordable short-distance fares,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ratepayer subsidies for train and\u00a0ferry services\u00a0have soared from $510 million to nearly $750m over the past five years, Auckland councillors heard yesterday. T<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t