Many people have children to get to school each morning, jobs in different parts of town, families to support, relatives to care for, or clubs and community groups we participate in.
We need a transport infrastructure that supports our busy lives and heavy commitments.
We are also acutely aware of the crisis of climate change, and that transport accounts for 40% of carbon use and 17% of emissions.
If we’re serious about climate change, we have to be serious about transport.
Cycling and walking have the lowest impact on the environment and I support them, but they are not suitable for all trips. We need good public transport options that are reliable and affordable.
Labour has provided half price bus fares for all until the end of January in recognition of an increase in the cost of living. Community card holders will retain the half price fares permanently.
Our bus-driver shortage in Dunedin has led to major disruption, and that reduces confidence and use of public transport.
Better pay leads to better recruitment and is why $61 million is provided in Budget 2022 for work over the next four years to ensure a sustainable, skilled workforce.
I commend the Otago Regional Council for recently increasing pay conditions to the median wage; hopefully the increase will result in more people applying for the driver jobs and allow an increase in scheduled services.
Every city seems to have a different bus card (think BEE, Snapper, HOP) which is inefficient and is a barrier to use.
That’s why last week the Transport Minister Michael Wood announced a National Ticketing Solution, so there’s one card or digital payment for all services, and it will work out the cheapest fare.
I travel a lot around the motu and this will make using public transport easier for us all.
It’s a big project and is expected to be rolled out nationwide by 2026.
Other work to increase public transport includes supporting an uplift in all urban bus networks, increasing micro-mobility (vehicles smaller than cars), trialling dial-up smaller scale services, and investigating opportunities for inter-regional public transport services.
On a related note it was great to visit Josephine, the 150-year-old Double Fairlie, at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum on Labour Day.
As a child I belonged to a group that used to spend weekends cleaning Josephine – in the days before internet and computer games – and it might explain my love of trains.
