NZTA seems to have decided it would like to add another loop to the doom spiral that public transport in NZ has experienced ever since 1950: make a service less attractive, so cuts are made, so it is even less attractive, so more cuts are made, etc., etc. - ThreadSky

drdrehistorian.bsky.social • 116 days ago

NZTA seems to have decided it would like to add another loop to the doom spiral that public transport in NZ has experienced ever since 1950: make a service less attractive, so cuts are made, so it is even less attractive, so more cuts are made, etc., etc.

Reposted from Thomas Nash

The government has proposed targets to increase the share of public transport costs from fares (and other revenue like advertising, which is small and not scalable). Our target equates to a 71% fare hike. Our only other option is even more cost cutting, which just cuts patronage and fare revenue. 1/

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stu-art.bsky.social•116 days ago

I hate this government. They are truly awful.

scorpionwind.bsky.social•116 days ago

I mean, it's not really NZTA, it's central government policy.

drdrehistorian.bsky.social•116 days ago

I know it would be nice to just be able to blame this govt, who seem to view transport as a key front in a culture war, but NZTA has form here long predating last year's election:

scorpionwind.bsky.social•116 days ago

I agree there's institutional issues but this is pretty much verbatim from the GPS. They didn't do this during the previous government. That's not by accident.

openpolicy.bsky.social•116 days ago

NZTA, or the Minister of Transport? I’d like to hope that by now there are enough people in NZTA who know how damaging this will be. But if a Minister says ‘cut this thing and spend money on that thing’, what are the officials to do but do as they’re told? I blame the Minister & his friends.

stu-art.bsky.social•116 days ago

Very much this. Simeon is a goblin.

drdrehistorian.bsky.social•116 days ago

Unfortunately, this sort of attitude in NZTA long predates this particular minister (who is speedrunning his attempt to be NZ's worst min of transport). It has decades of form here; its institutional origins were as a roads agency, and attitudes prioritising roads over PT seem to remain ingrained

drdrehistorian.bsky.social•116 days ago

NZTA, for instance, shares blame with KiwiRail for impediments and shortcomings associated with Te Huia, and if that train service is not renewed after its five-year trial I will blame both as much as I will blame Simeon Brown

openpolicy.bsky.social•116 days ago

Yes, I know they hardly have a blameless history as an institution. But significant changes to spending like this don’t happen without ministerial approval, if not instruction.

tgillan.bsky.social•115 days ago

Be nice, Simeon Brown had his toy trains taken from him as a child (last year) and hasn't been the same since

drdrehistorian.bsky.social•116 days ago

The reason public transport sucks in NZ and the country is hopelessly car-dependent isn't because Kiwis blindly love their cars and hate other modes, it is because of decisions that consistently make PT worse rather than appealing. PT is a public good; policy must make it a public desire

drdrehistorian.bsky.social•116 days ago

Railways (and other PT, but I know this point specifically re: railways) often struggle to capture enough of the benefits they create in the form of revenue. This has been true in NZ and Aus since the very first railways, hence our history of public funding of construction and operation

andyjennings.bsky.social•116 days ago

it makes NZ a much less appealing tourist destination as you spend a lot of your holiday in a rented car.

drdrehistorian.bsky.social•116 days ago

Yup. I've had to explain to multiple Europeans that you can't just hop on a train to Rotorua, for instance. They expect what you'd find in most comparable countries: you can easily travel by rail from cities with major air hubs to cities that are major tourist destinations

timward2014.bsky.social•116 days ago

NZTA: "Does it hurt?"
"How about now?"

adamchapman.bsky.social•116 days ago

Interestingly, this is exactly what Gordon Brown did about 20 years ago. There's a logic to it, sure, but the results are plain to see (though the UK PT situation is not really analogous to NZ - the principal consequence being columns about walk-up fares which... rather miss the point, usually).

adamchapman.bsky.social•116 days ago

I should do a bingo card for these, but they tend to ignore 1. implicit subsidy of motoring, 2. sunk costs, 3. walk up air fares are insane too, 4. point to point times which ignore travel to other modal hubs, 5. ancillary costs like parking...

adamchapman.bsky.social•116 days ago

... 6. The horrendous (and unnecessarily complicated) fares structure - it's bananas that there's stations near Bristol that, depending on your destination, could encounter three different definitions of 'Peak', for example, without looking into why that is. I could, but won't, go on.

drdrehistorian.bsky.social•116 days ago

I am routinely astounded every time I bump into UK fare discourse

Not to mention the ridiculous prices do influence my choices about where I might holiday—if I want to spend a few days gunzelling while in Europe, why not choose a more affordable country?

adamchapman.bsky.social•116 days ago

Exactly!

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