Looking through the NZTA website recently I managed to find some data I’ve wanted to see for some time about our PT system. In particular information is about fare revenue, the amount of passenger kilometres travelled and the number of kilometres services travel. I’ll cover it all off over a few posts but to start with I’ll just look at fare revenue.
Fare revenue is the total amount that passengers pay to use PT services and can be affected by a number of factors such as
- The number of trips taken – more people will generally mean more revenue
- The distance people travel – i.e. if users start taking longer trips revenue will grow
- The age of passengers – e.g. a higher proportion of younger people will likely mean more concession/child fares and therefore less revenue
- The fare structure – reducing fares, like what happened last year for most users, could mean less revenue
- The number of people paying by cash – cash fares are more expensive than passes or multi trip/HOP fares
- The mode people used – e.g. ferries re more expensive than buses or trains
Unfortunately we don’t know what’s changed with all of those factors over the years so for this analysis I’m going to assume most (such as the age of passengers) has stayed fairly constant. Usefully the data is also broken down by mode allowing us to see the changes at that level.
In Auckland fare revenue has almost doubled over the last decade from $85 million in 2003/04 to $162 million in 2013/14 while at the same time patronage climbed from 52 million to 72 million trips. An interesting fact I noticed while looking at this data – and that highlights the factors listed above – was that despite patronage on trains and buses falling during 2012/13 fare revenue from passengers actually increased slightly. I was also surprised at just how similar both ferry and train revenues have been for most of the last decade.
That means the average fare Aucklander’s pay has also increased and risen from $1.64 per trip in 2003/04 to $2.24 per trip in 2013/14. The average ferry fare stands out as being well above the other modes reflecting the fact that ferry services cost more to use. I’m not sure why ferry revenue dropped so much in 2003-2007 period, patronage on ferries were certainly growing.
At this stage it’s looking like we’re paying quite a bit more for many of our PT services but before we declare that I’ve also made a version of the graph above where the average fare has been adjusted for inflation. Doing so shows that on average for buses and trains, fares have actually decreased while ferries remain volatile.
It will be fascinating to see the impact on these figures from the patronage surge we’re experiencing and from the reduction in fares for HOP users (the majority) in July last year. Overall it seems like Aucklander’s are on average paying the paying slightly less for their buses and trains than they did a decade ago. Can the same be said for our friends down in Wellington.
The overall Auckland and Wellington graphs have a number of similarities, especially with the total figure. What’s particularly interesting is that the increases has occurred despite limited patronage growth for most of the last decade.
What’s particularly interesting is that the increases has occurred despite limited patronage growth for most of the last decade. That means like Auckland the average fare has increased.
And here it is inflation adjusted. Unlike Auckland, adjusting for inflation doesn’t change the outcome for rail which in Wellington is still seeing fares increase on average.
So how do these average fares compare with other international cities? I took look at a number of them in Australia, Canada and the US. In most of those cities, but not all, the average fare is somewhere been $1 and $2. That puts Auckland and slightly above average of the cities I compared but not massively so and as mentioned earlier and I think the average will come down thanks to the fare reduction in July. I also hope the current surge in patronage continues and that too is bound to bring the average down.
Lastly I’m going to look at revenues per Passenger Km travelled. I’ll only compare bus and train fares for this one but include both cities. What we can see is that on average Aucklanders catching the train are paying more per km travelled than those in Wellington but Wellington bus users pay more.
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> I’m not sure why ferry revenue dropped so much in 2003-2007 period
SuperGold cards might have had quite an impact? (eg. $17->$0 for Waiheke and $5->$0 for Devonport)
To point out the obvious: this is why patronage in Wellington has been stagnant for a decade, and why it is rocketing in Auckland.
Increase in quality of service in Auckland is what is driving uptake. Fare cost is important too, but even if services were free they wouldn’t attract many users if they don’t deliver them to their destinations in good time, and reliably so. Too many of Auckland’s services are still too indirect, slow, infrequent, unavailable too often, and unreliable, but that is all changing, and those changes are being rewarded with ridership.
I think Wellingtons issue is more a combination of less population/economic growth, a more mature network that is harder to make significant improvements too and councils less interested in making changes that are needed
Wellington’s slowly rising patronage is due to less population growth and economic growth as Matt stated. The network is relatively mature, with a large catchment area. Overall, there isn’t the demand for more public transport as public transport here is pretty good (unless going cross town) .Driving is also convenient as traffic isn’t that bad (apart from some choke points). Walking and cycling amnesties are also very, very good here, however some improvements could be nice.
Walking in the city in Welly is poor whereever the TEs hold sway; ie outside of the Waterfront and Civic Square, and the few happily unmolested Victorian streets… Ped cycles are obscenely long at all crossings, so few wait, especially as there is very little traffic at almost all times. Like AKL cycling needs major work… again the streets have so much space, so many dedicated lanes for all movements, even angle parking on city streets where there could be bike lanes. Parking is over supplied. Amalgamate those Councils I reckon, been surprisingly positive for AKL.
pedestrians cycles aren’t that long here in Welly apart from Customhouse Quay, but that is mainly due to cross towners who try and avoid the Mt Vic tunnel, Basin Reserve and the Terrace tunnel bottlenecks. It also depends on what you call a long pedrestrian cycle. Yes there are some angle parks in the cbd, but they are mainly in the streets that don’t need bike lanes. As for the over supply of parking…that’s a more complicated issue. There is a shortage of short stay parks(less than 2hr), and an oversupply of all day parking. This is most likely due to Tournament/Wilson not pricing short stay parks at an appropriate price, therefore all the short stayers park on the street.
Would be great if you could cover Wellington issues more often as way too many these days! Bus fares are very expensive in Wellington due to the tiny fare zones- surprising patronage is not even lower given these and the huge losses in CBD jobs to Auckland and elsewhere e.g. the banks, telecommunications, many govt departments and the like.
At least some improvements may gradually be happening such as on Victoria St for the new combined polytech campus and the proposed apartment tower. http://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/projects/victoria-street-transformation-project
There is an improvement in service, and this is important. But trains and buses in Auckland represent value for money, in a way that Wellington transport services do not.
All of the market is sensitive to quality. But a lot of the market is sensitive to price, particularly at the margin where vehicles (with sunk fixed costs) are competitive. And when they are combined with quality of service, low or medium prices make transport closer to ‘frictionless’ in a way that either quality or price do not do on their own. Wellington has neither, outside a few well-served trunk services.
“But trains and buses in Auckland represent value for money, in a way that Wellington transport services do not” – errr, so that’s why Aucklanders made an average of 46 trips per head in 2012/13 while Wellingtonians made 72, 56% more per head?
Trying to reconcile this with the figures in the long term plan. According to p.101 of the following document, Auckland Council received just $68m in 2014 for “activity user charges and fees”. I assume this is the gross contracts for NEX and rail. So the figure of $160m in the top chart includes this and revenues retained by the operators for all other services?
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/plansstrategies/Long_term_plan/Documents/ltpvolume2.pdf
Yes this is both commercial and contracted services. The data is actually broken down by both between 2004 and 2012 but not anymore.
If that is fares received, assuming a 50% fare box recovery, then $320m is received by the PT operators? Does that match up to AT budget?
It will be interesting to see what AT doing with this years annual price adjustment. For incentives for HOP or go for higher firebox recovery?
The Waikanae extension doesnt seem to have had much effect on the Wellington graphs.
Your right. It’s mainly because most people who live north of Paraparaumu used to use Paraparaumu train station as it was the end of the line. Now, with the Waikanae extension (only one extra station), those people now just use Waikanae station rather than Pram.
While the Waikanae extension was only one station, there is a distinct upward kick in average train fare in 2011, when Waikanae opened and there were no other significant changes.
Wellington Bus seems quite expensive per Km. What would be the reason for that?
Wellington bus fares are relatively expensive per km because most bus journeys are short (the shorter the journey the more expensive per km, since fares have a distance taper) and within Wellington city, where fare zones are small; in contrast, most Wellington train journeys are long and in the suburbs, where fare zones are larger – and discounted monthly train passes are available.
Am I missing something? The average bus fare in Auckland is lower than the 1 stage bus fare! Considering the prices ratchet up quite a lot for longer journeys (e.g. 6 stages is $8.50) it seems a bit odd. Of course there are children and uni students and super gold, but it still seems to low to me.
I travel at off peak times and in south Auckland there are a lot of 1 stage journeys for shopping contrary to Dick’s assertion. Young Mum’s with strollers and bundles etc which the train staff seem to be very helpful too even noticed it on occasions on the bus where the drivers have helped.
Inner Link, City Link, both have fares lower than the standard one-stage fare. Also, as you observe, concessions, particularly for students.
“Looking through the NZTA website recently I managed to find some data I’ve wanted to see for some time about our PT system…”
You didn’t actually link to where you got the data. Was it somewhere in http://www.nzta.govt.nz/planning/data/modes.html ? That “iServer” database looks quite handy…
Yep that’s the one and yes the iserver stuff really handy. The funding stuff is very useful too, have between tracking it for some time but oddly they only show a rolling 10 years so now a few years of data has rolled off
Interesting to compare where Christchurch sits against Akld/Wgtn using those database figures (well, the data is only at Canterbury level, so that will include Timaru, but they’re not big numbers there). If I’ve read this right, the current (13/14) average bus fare (revenue per boardings) in Chch is ~$1.16 (just before the quakes in 09/10 it was $1.29). So a bit less than the equivalent Akld/Wgtn bus fares; that sounds about right, Chch has always seemed cheaper to get around by PT. Ah, but Chch is generally a lot smaller in size (and hence trip distance) than Akld/Wgtn? Except that the average revenue per passenger-km is still only $0.14 in Chch ($0.15 pre-quakes). Hence a lot cheaper than Akld/Wgtn buses and performing well against the train services too.
I love how they also have some stats for other performance criteria, like:
% of services wheelchair accessible: Akld 95%, Wgtn 74%, Chch 100%
% of buses accessible to bikes: Akld 1% (Waiheke), Wgtn 0%, Chch 92% (which is now 100% as of Dec)
That is interesting about Christchurch and bikes on bus issue.
Re Jimbo-Jones qu around why average Akld bus fares are below 1 stage price:
Only around 60% of bus patronage are adults – the rest are discounted for child, school student, tertiary students & Super Gold.
Adult patronage also has a reasonable portion of discounts for the various passes.
Also . . . buses are dominated by 1 and 2 stage fares, whilst trains are much stronger in the 3-4 stage fares.
This does seem like an extraordinarily low amount even. Even though PT should be promoted as the preferred travle option, having prices at this low level is not going to help fund further growth. It is a balance between patronage growth and fare box revenue.
I think some people in AT or the Board are hesitant to move up certain fares as this penalises lower socio groups dependant on PT. True low socio PT customers with Community Service Cards and on benefits could be catered with in a different way with heavily discounted fares. Increasing the cash fares further and holding the AT HOP fares has worked well, but is still a long way behind the likes of Melbourne where cash is double the price.
“having prices at this low level is not going to help fund further growth. It is a balance between patronage growth and fare box revenue”
I would like to see the fares even lower at this stage. That would encourage more growth so that revenue would grow while fares are lower for the Hop users. It would be nice if all students using Hop were to have any journey on the system at 50c, provided that they understand that they will relinquish their seats for the adult passengers. This would encourage them into the PT system and may even reduce some of the school traffic.
My feeling is that the lower fares would increase the patronage and more journeys would be full making the PT system more profitable sooner and reduce the number of vehicle competing for road space. It would be nice if there were more dedicated bus lanes particularly on the Mt Eden Dominion road services allowing buses to keep better times and spaces.
Good plan TedF – and maybe making student fares zero would be even better. There seems to be a large education peak in Auckland’s traffic and free student travel passes could make a decent dent into this.
David B, I think that making the fee zero defeats the purpose. Getting a free ride doesn’t really help educate the student into the PT frame of mind, doesn’t help the stats collection or get the students into the use of Hop card.So I’m not in favour of free rides.
The Swiss have drawn these conclusion with the ZVV model.
They are already discounted but don’t see why not 25% school age, 50% all other students. Or that would be after $10 day pass so $2.50 or $5 daily. Then a $10 family pass weekends makes PT a real option for all families 7 days a week.
I think at the moment if we can get our all stage day pass as cheap as possible and even cheaper in weekends, and some good family passes. A $10 all day fare like Calgary and cheap weekend family passes like Perth. Launch with a full scale bus lane network arterials and motorway and get those buses on dayworks and a team at AT controlling maximise whole fleet-reviewing rail capacities etc, forget this contracted routed rubbish. This team would have a fantastic impact and have fun absolutely (especially with the gates fully open)untapping bus potential and maximising all modes in the battle against congestion and getting.mode share up where it should be forgetting the last 60 years.
Thats $10 day pass and $10 family day pass weekends. Easy to market and think public response would be very supportive and get more hop cards into more wallets. Then we market frequency 200-400 buses on express core all main centres/ shopping centres like 2030 plan then dovetailed to AT frequent ,15min network.
Stephen F I like your suggestions.
By way of comparison, in Chch with a MetroCard you have all-day travel around Chch City for $5/day and greater Chch (Rangiora-Burnham-Diamond Harbour) for $9.10; kids half price.
How are the Super Gold card fares funded? Is this entirely at AT’s cost or does the gov’t chip in?
Update: Found the answer. http://www.transport.govt.nz/land/supergoldcardtransportfunding
I don’t recall seeing Gold card users “tagging off”. Guess the bus operator changes the Government the penalty fare for every trip!
Transport agencies in Auckland and Wellington really need to look at their card fares. Transport for NSW seems to have a good idea (evening if a really annoying video):