It seems that every plan has something that gets people up in arms but that in the end turns out to be a bit of a storm in a teacup and for the draft Regional Public Transport Plan it seems that issue has been found.

The issue is around the Super Gold card and what will happen after the new fare structure is brought in. Here are the paragraphs that have got people worried.

The existing fares system in Auckland provides fare concessions for specific target groups. These will be retained during the AIFS transition period.
When integrated ticketing is in place, a review of concession levels and eligibility is proposed, including a possible change to SuperGold card use during the evening peak period (this is not available outside of Auckland) and tertiary discounts (these are often unavailable outside Auckland).
NZTA has sought a review of the evening peak senior concession with a view to its removal, on the grounds that it is nationally inconsistent and unaffordable

It’s unfortunate that any suggestion to change to policies like the SuperGold card kicks up such a storm. All that the plan is really saying is that the existing concession that Auckland currently gives will be reviewed and personally I think that is completely fair. Reviewing all of the various concessions should happen at the same time as regular fares are reviewed. My view is that in the off peak, when there tends to be plenty of spare seats, the perk isn’t such an issue but at peak times our trains and buses are often packed full of people so it really makes no sense to be giving anyone free travel during those times. Mike Lee has said that part of the reason Auckland rolled out the free off peak travel was due to bureaucratic difficulties but I assume that many of these should be resolved with the introduction of the HOP card so why not review the decision again.

Speaking of HOP and SuperGold, surely once the roll out is complete it would be ideal to combine the two cards. It wouldn’t be difficult to print the super gold logo on the cards and could make it easier for the elderly to use them as currently they will have to go to a machine and purchase a ticket using it. Going further I hope that there is eventually a review of how the scheme actually works, at least within Auckland. The proposed fare boundaries cover quite a large area and I feel that consideration should be made to retaining the free travel within the proposed zones but that travel outside of the zones, even outside of peak should perhaps be charged. Doing this would still allow elderly to retain mobility within their communities but prevent issues like what was found to occur with the ferries where people were using the perk for free cruises of the harbour. With the combination of the HOP card it should be very simple to manage.

Of course no matter how good any suggestion is (and I’m not saying mine is necessarily the best), this particular topic more than most is something that will be decided by the politicians and not the NZTA or AT. I really can’t see any politician standing up to the likes of grey power to argue for changes that would limit the use of the card.

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19 comments

  1. I hope the review considers the price sensitivity of demand for the various market segments and times of day, as well as the marginal costs of additional passengers. With a government-imposed fare recovery target, these factors need to be well thought through before making changes.

    There are plenty of precedents for what has been politically and financially possible in other Australasian cities. A summary of these would be useful in the review. For example, Adelaide offers free travel to seniors between 9am and 3pm http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/ticketing/seniors-free-travel . After 3pm there are school loadings, followed by the evening peak. It would be difficult to persuade fare-paying passengers to vacate their seats for a senior travelling for free. Melbourne offers free travel to seniors only on Saturdays and Sundays. At other times a concession applies. Sydney offers all-day travel for $2.50 per day. In Brisbane a senior pays a concessional rate for the first 2 journeys in a day, and subsequent journeys are free. There is a 20% discount for all travellers between 9am and 3:30pm, and after 7:00pm on weekdays, plus all day on weekends. Perth offers free travel between 9:00 and 3:30 Monday to Friday, and all day on weekends. None of these cities offer free evening travel to seniors – it’s not a good time to encourage them to travel because of low staffing levels in case of incidents.

  2. The part that gets me is NZTA saying they want to remove it because it is “unaffordable”. We all know how many billions are being spent on pet motorway projects so the $1M they can claw back from the old fogies seems like desperately scraping the barrel. No pattern to unaffordable/affordable with current gov, mere coincidence no money 1 second causing rail closure but unexpected windfall meant the country could suddenly afford new passing lanes.

  3. The NZTA forget that most old fogie Gold Card holders like me now occasionally use the buses with the card and fill seats that would normally be empty and the card holder in his/her car. The agency should have realised this and told the contractors they would get a reduced subsidy for these seats. Fullers had more brains than the NZTA and advertised for card holders to come to Waiheke for the day and creamed dozens of full fares for what would have been empty seats.!! Good for Fullers and card holders but not for ratepayers so the Agency needs to negotiate a lower subsidy, don’t scrub the card availability because the seats will be empty again and more petrol burned………….

    1. Hi Richard,

      That’s a sound argument for the SuperGold scheme in general, but kind of misses the point – as mentioned above the removal of SuperGold free use under the proposed change only applies after 3pm weekdays – when those seats would not otherwise be empty. From 3pm onwards they’re filling up with (fare paying) students and evening commuters.

    2. Richard, I think they know that SuperGold holders tend to travel at off-peak times thereby filling seats that have a low marginal cost.

      But if filling offpeak seats is the goal (and I think it should be) then why not just offer a flat off-peak discount on all fares? I don’t see why oldies should travel free for this reason, while everyone still pays full price.

      Instead would it not be simpler and fairer if we reinstated senior fares, but offered an off-peak discount on all fares?

  4. That photo is awesome. I was distracted by her alluring charms for a moment. Ah wait, here it is – why not have a compulsory photo ID on the SuperGold card and use it as a test pilot for a nationwide transport smart card. If places like Scotland can have a nationwide travel card ihttp://news.stv.tv/scotland/192709-plans-for-smart-card-cashless-travel-on-public-transport-across-scotland/ then surely it cannot be too hard…then again the whole Snapper episode springs to mind!

  5. There are good social reasons for getting the oldies out of their home and there are decongestion benefits of getting them out of their cars. I think the council should leave it how it is.

    1. Nope, disagree – oldies have lowest rates of poverty of any age group in NZ. If we’re going to subsidise people for getting out and about then it should be based on need, not age.

      And why pay to just oldies? Why not all beneficiaries? (yes, I classify NZ Super as a benefit).

      1. It makes no economic sense to offer one age group in society free travel while keeping it unaffordable to many others. Scarce PT dollar subsidies should benefit everyone instead of just a small group. If you’re worried about senior mobility and fitness, why not buy them all a bicycle?

  6. It is often said that the area of greatest expenditure of the SuperGold subsidy is to Fullers (and Sealink) ferries. The amount paid to these companies needs to be reduced. One way of making a reduction is to renegotiate the base cost of these fares. At present the cost is based on a single fare which is in both cases the most expensive way to travel. As anyone traveling in one direction to Waiheke will have to return these fares should have been calculated on the return rate divided by 2. This could be extended further by applying the 10 or 40 trip rate for further reductions in cost to the tax/rate payer.

    1. I don’t think, from memory, it’s true that Fullers charges $35pp to the Government for the oldies to enjoy the chance to tour Waiheke vineyards every day. There is a discount charge.

  7. Interesting topic. Here’s what I would do:
    – retain concessionary fares of say 50% for children/students/seniors
    – introduce a new concessionary fare for anyone with a community services card
    – introduce a new off-peak discount of, say, 30% (could apply to adult fares only).

    I would have though that this would approximate people’s marginal willingness to pay and marginal costs of provision fairly well, thereby leading to maximum patronage for a given level of subsidy.

  8. MHO is that there should be a fare payable by all peak time users for all forms of PT travel. There should be a concession for the elderly and students. The movement to an electronic system is supposed to reduce the administrative hassles that occur with differing payment systems for different groups so I agree, this seems an ideal time.
    It is all about the demand in the peak time and particularly the demand from the key group who are paying for the rail development.
    It’s very important that our elderly have mobility and they have contributed strongly to national development but that investment was in roading, not rail so I’m not sure the grey power arguments really stack up here, otherwise we’d already have a developed rail system in Auckland and wouldn’t have to be trying to set it up now.

    1. Does it need to be free though? As soon as you make something free you lose the paper trail and create opportunities for corruption. I know most people don’t like dropping the “c” bomb into the same sentence as seniors but let’s be honest – the SuperGold card seems ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous users and PT companies.

    2. Oh I agree that it opens up opportunities to mess with the system. Take the Waiheke Ferry: just requires someone to push a button and Fullers earns something like $20 in a way that’s almost impossible to trace.

  9. I think this area shows another hole in government thinking for a number of decades and that is that, with the focus having, and continuing to go into investment in roading, do governments expect that people, concerned about their own mobility, will continue driving into their 70’s and 80’s? I know many do continue to drive but there will be many who are less confident (with the growing congestion out there I feel less confident driving on our roads!) or less able for other reasons and how is the government catering for their PT needs? And less face it, we all know we have an ageing population so this issue isn’t going to go away.
    How does the government address the issue? Building more roads and making local ratepayers bear the cost of PT subsidy – outstanding solution!

  10. If oldies are really using too much PT capacity then perhaps the capacity/frequency of PT need to benlooked at. That said I think oldies should pay outside of designated offpeak hours.
    At least if all journeys by oldies are tracked, an analysis would show perhaps some areas would be better served by having a fleet of ‘oldies only’ buses, (perhaps rollon-rolloff style for mobility scooters). That way they are kept off the main PT network altogether and have a system more responsive to their needs.
    The numbers of oldies is going to increase over time so I don’t see why this isn’t feasible.

  11. Interesting topic. I personally think we should retain free travel for Senior Citizens – but I’d be happy to drop the evening peak hours. Use this money to expand the system to cover all beneficiaries. I would then have three levels of fares:
    Full fare: Adults at peak hours
    Discounted fare: Young people (under 20 years) & tertiary students – travelling at any time; Senior citizens and beneficiaries during peak hours.
    Free fare: Senior citizens and beneficiaries.

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