Aucklanders reject rail rise option

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 21

Aucklanders reject rail rise option

PA Auckland Auckland local body leaders have condemned a proposed 202 per cent rise in the region’s urban rail fares. They said that the increase, if approved by the Government, would destroy the existing rail, service and inflict an unnecessary burden on ratepayers. The increase was recommended in a comprehensive report compiled by the Urban Rail Review Committee, released by the Government this week. Reaction to the 100-page document, which also recommended that ratepayers in areas served by urban rail should meet half the subsidy cost was strong and swift. Auckland local authorities were particularly critical of the proposed 202 per cent fare rise for the city’s commuters, which was proposed to be introduced in three stages and did not include inflation. But the Government has

emphasises that it had yet to consider fully the report, and a final decision on any recommendation would not be made until all interested parties were consulted. The report said that the Government at present covered the entire $4.21 million a year operating loss of the urban rail service in Auckland. It said that the Government subsidy, of which Auckland represented 79 per cent of the total $5.9 million, could not be justified and should be reduced by increasing fares. However, the increase could be smaller if local bodies decided to supplement the Government input. The Auckland Regional Authority’s chairman, Mr Fred Thomas, said that the recommendations could be the death of the Auckland urban service.

The report said that continuing the rail service was justified in the short term, but in the long term it would probably be more economic to replace the

carriages with buses. Mr Thomas said that there was already poor patronaige on the rail service, and commuters would be further discouraged by fare increases. The A.R.A. would examine the report because it would ultimately affect its planning for buses and roading.

The Mayor of Waitemata, Mr Tim Shadbolt, said that the proposed 202 per cent increase was “outrageous” and a complete reversal of the Labour Party policy to save the railways. In its official policy release last year, Labour said that it would improve the railways, promote public urban transport, and repeal those sections of the Urban Transport Act which placed a crippling financial burden on ratepayers. The 202 per cent increase, if approved, would eventually take the full-distance adult fare from $2.50 to $7.55, and children’s fare from $1.50 to $3.77.