The Transport Minister says he is working with bus and ferry providers on how services could deal with more patronage as fuel disruption continues.
Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington public transport providers have all reported an increase in the use of their services as more pain at the pump is felt by New Zealanders.
On Tuesday Transport Minister Chris Bishop confirmed to media discussions were being had about the expansion of public transport if it was required.
“We are working that through with public transport providers at the moment, again [it’s a] relatively fluid situation with the fuel prices coming out of Iran.”
Bishop said he’d met public transport providers last week who said they could deal with increased patronage growth. He said any further funding from the Government would focus on current routes rather than developing any new routes or on demand-style services.
“Generally, if I spent another dollar on public transport, our focus will be on maintaining existing services and making sure that the capacity is there and that the services can continue to run, rather than on demand-side subsidies.”
Wellington’s public transport provider Metlink ran a small bus via an on-demand service in Tawa as a trial for two years where people could call up the bus with an app, but it was ended due to costs.
In terms of the costs of public transport, the minister said they were facing a “complex picture”.
“About 80% of our bus fleet runs on diesel, so public transport providers are also facing increased costs. They are facing increased patronage which helps with their fare box recovery, but they are also facing increased running costs as well.”
Labour Party transport spokesperson Tangi Utikere told media on Tuesday morning he was asking the Government to think about how it can best support households, businesses and industry.
“Whether that’s working from home, whether it is in the form of transport subsidies that’s over to the Government to be making those decisions, but we would certainly like them to be thinking about those options.”
Utikere said ministers also needed to turn their minds towards increasing frequency of public transport services.
He told media he’d written to KiwiRail to ask it to consider extra frequency of the Capital Connection train service, which currently runs from Palmerston North to Wellington in the morning then travels back in the evening on weekdays.
Published in The Post 31 March 2026
For further reading concerning the points raised in this opinion -
