Otago regional councillor Michael Deaker believes Dunedin's bus service has turned the corner and is now delivering what the public wants.
"It's definitely on track... It's probably now at the quality and frequency and efficiency level that people want it to be."
Census figures released last month showed the percentage of the city's 49,700 commuters who used buses to get to work dropped from 4% to 3% in the 10 years from 1996.
Mr Deaker, who is the regional council's policy and resource planning committee chairman said, at the time, the census figures did not reflect bus service changes rolled out since 1998.
Earlier this week, he provided figures showing the service carried 1.3 million passengers in the year to June 2007, 1.4 million in 2007-08 and 1.7 million in 2008-09.
He said there had been a "slight falling away again" in the figures for the June quarter of 2008-09 for the first time in a couple of years, which he attributed to falling petrol prices.
Asked what had brought about the overall increase in patronage, Mr Deaker said the council had poured "millions of dollars" into better buses, more services, more shelters, a better timetable and the introduction of the Go Card.
"We've spent an awful lot of money on making the system a lot better. That's on one side of the equation.
"On the other side, there's probably the fact that petrol prices have gone up enormously. You put the two together and people can see a more convenient bus service compared with running their car."
He considered the council was "at the limit" of what it could spend on the service believed the Government was too.
"The Government pays 25% of the cost of running the service ($2,528,000 in the year to June) and regional council ratepayers pay 25% ($2,497,000 in the year to June).
Mr Deaker said to retain the Government's 25% subsidy, the council had to recover half the cost of the service from fares.
With the increased patronage and a 25% fare increase from July 1 "we're just a wee bit over the 50%".
Mr Deaker said those who paid through their rates and taxes for a service they did not use should keep in mind the people who used buses.
"The majority of them are people who have to use buses because they haven't got cars," he said. "They rely on the buses."
