Bus fare increase will be delayed

Press, 16 July 1986, Page 9

Bus fare increase will be delayed

A threatened 25 per cent fare increase will be delayed until January by the Christchurch Transport Board, but cheap evening and week-end fares will go and Sunday services could be cut. Board members were told yesterday that an extra $490,000 in the Urban Transport Council grant and a three-month operational surplus more than 100 per cent above budget meant the fare increase could be delayed.

The delay would mean that the board would have to pay the Government about $200,000 in goods and services tax without collecting this from passengers until January. The cost-cutting suggestions have come from a board working party which was set up to review services and functions.

The working party discussed the problem of inadequately used services run after 6 p.m. on weekdays and those at week-ends. It recommended that full fares be charged after 4 p.m. on weekdays and on Saturdays, Sundays, and statutory holidays.

The board’s staff should be instructed to find whether special fares for sports and other functions should continue, and whether all fares should end at Cathedral Square. Staff should also look at Sunday services with a view to reducing the service to one shift and eliminating services from Cathedral Square after 5.45 p.m., the working party recommended. A board member, Mr lan Rivers, warned that the choice lay between a reduced Sunday service and no service at all. He wanted to ensure that the use of rates to finance board operations was kept as low as possible, compared with other revenue sources.

The board adopted all the working party’s recommendations, but a reduction in Sunday services cannot be made without the approval of the transport licensing authorities.

The board’s chairman, Mr Patrick Neary, said last evening that there was no contradiction between cutting cheap fares and reducing Sunday services, and the board’s desire to see greater bus

patronage. Insufficient people were using the buses in the evenings and at weekends to pay for the additional costs of these services, which Included penal rates of pay, he said.

The board’s first priority had to be the great majority of passengers who used the bus service to commute to work or school. The 90 per cent of passengers who used the buses for these reasons would not be affected by the changes, he said. Before Sunday services were reduced the board would assess passenger numbers and give the public an opportunity to object to cuts. He predicted, however, that most people would be amazed by the small number of patrons on Sunday services and the fact that so many services had been offered for so long.

The over-all reduction in the subsidy from the Urban Transport Council had meant that the board either had to cut services or increase revenue. It had tried to do both with the minimum inconvenience, but if people did not use buses the services

would come under greater threat, said Mr Neary. He hoped the fare changes in the evenings and at week-ends could be introduced in about three weeks.

The board’s surplus for the period between April and June 22 was 105 per cent more than budgeted for. This was because of firm control over costs and a lower fall-off in passenger numbers than expected when fares were increased.

Mr Clyde Sugden, a board member, said the only expense to be ahead of estimates was diesel fuel oil, and this was because of a miscalculation at the time the estimates were drawn.

Passenger numbers had fallen off 6.2 per cent, but the estimates had been based on the traditional belief that a fare increase would result in a 10 per cent fall-off, he said. Passenger revenue had increased 21.4 per cent, the greatest increase coming from monthly passes which had not been affected by price increases.

Several board members suggested that more publicity should be given to these passes.