For $200 million the Government could reinstate bus network upgrades it previously cancelled in regions now suffering huge fuel price shocks, the Green Party says.

Government figures show that more than 99% of the upgrades Auckland asked for were granted in the national land transport programme for 2024-27 – but the story was much different for other regions, with many having their bids for upgrades rejected entirely.

With the fuel crisis, the Green Party wants the Government to immediately consider co-funding projects it previously rejected.

Transport Minister Chris Bishop says there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and a new draft Government Policy Statement will be out this year.

While the Government will “continue to invest strongly” in public transport, he refused to commit to a larger proportion of funding.

The data from his office showed the Government approved $95.7 million of the $96.6m (more than 99%) that Auckland Transport asked for, accounting for about 70% of funding approved for new public transport investments under the plan.

Other regions did have some funding approved including Bay of Plenty (under $1.3m), Canterbury (under $9m), Manawatū (under $23m), Otago (under $5.3m) and Waikato (under $4.4m).

But much smaller amounts were rejected in full for the likes of Gisborne ($3.6m), Invercargill ($2.5m), Nelson ($200,000), Northland ($8.2m), Taranaki ($7.4m), Hamilton ($10.4m), Wellington ($25.5m) and Waimakariri ($350,000).

More than $45.3m also remains categorised as “possible – unlikely to be funded”.

All up, the Government denied about $14m more funding for bus network upgrades than it granted.

Greens call for review

Green MP Julie Anne Genter told RNZ that with the fuel crisis biting, improving bus services would make them more usable for those struggling, and called for the Government to urgently take another look.

“We’re in an urgent crisis right now where people need real alternatives to relying on their petrol or diesel car to get around. The least the Government could do is go back to these councils who did all this planning and consultation and fund those services.”

Genter noted the $153m in rejected projects was about the same as the cost of the geotechnical scoping work the Government paid for a second Mt Victoria tunnel in Wellington.

She acknowledged not all the projects could be immediately implemented – but said much of the work was already done by councils.

“It’s possible not all of the projects could be stood up in a short period of time, but they should be looking at anything that could be done in the next few months. This could be a very long-term issue with the higher oil prices and public transport makes sense anyway to invest in.”

Bishop said it would not be so easy.

“The Greens sort of seem to be assuming that you could automatically expand services tomorrow or invest in infrastructure tomorrow – that’s simply not the reality.

“There’s always demand for services that can’t be met in terms of funding and there’s no such thing as a free lunch. There’s a limited amount of money, tough decisions have to be made always, and I appreciate that there are services that people would like to see run but not all of them make economic sense.”

He said decisions on where the funding went for bus network improvement were not made by ministers, but rather the transport agency – according to “a metric around what is accepted and what is not”.

Genter suspected the reason Auckland benefited far more than other regions was because the Government viewed public transport as valuable only for reducing congestion for drivers.

“The reality is, in small or medium towns people could have a real choice if the Government would bring the co-funding to the table, $200 million is a very small amount in the context of the national land transport programme ... in fact, it’s 0.6%, it’s a tiny amount.”

“For example, when they dropped fares in Queenstown – simplified the network, increased bus frequency – they had a massive jump in ridership, and that is a relatively small, rural area ... but to do that, it requires government to step up.”

A closer look at some regions also shows that as a result of the Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024, councils were required to cut or curb projects to even be eligible for continued baseline funding for buses under the programme.

These examples never amounted to the bids for co-funding rejected by the Government, because the councils were warned they would likely fail.

Taranaki

An official information response shows a “profound impact” on services and public confidence over the scrapping of about $11m in funding for a “transformational” bus network redesign in Taranaki.

The upgrade had been approved under Labour after three years of consultation, but “following changes to national transport priorities reflected in the Draft GPS 2024, [the council] was required to realign its public transport programme to a value-for-money and efficiency-focused framework”.

“Taranaki’s public transport contracts had not been comprehensively renewed for approximately 12 years, and cost increases ... were unavoidable,” the response from Taranaki Regional Council said.

“As a result: no increase in service frequency could be implemented; cross-town services could not be introduced; evening and weekend improvements were limited or reduced; network coverage expansion was not possible; public transport outcomes fell materially short of community expectations.”

The council said it re-scoped the business case from the “gold service level” goal it had expected to reach.

“Under current funding settings, [the council] is unable to achieve even the bronze level, which represents the most basic uplift in service provision.

“The inability to deliver even basic service improvements has resulted in a significant gap between community expectations and actual outcomes, and a loss of public confidence in the public transport system.”

Dunedin

A proposal to improve public transport in Dunedin was also withdrawn and never consulted on by the Otago Regional Council after the Government indicated no new funding would be available.

An investment proposal shows officials recommended consultation on four options for more frequent buses while keeping adult fares at $2 be rescinded because the council “has been advised that the likelihood of receiving endorsement ... is very low in the current funding environment”.

The revamp proposed buses every 15 minutes on main routes, 50c fares, and expanded hours of operation – putting an end to a situation where many Sunday services’ final bus departs before 6pm.

An “early ‘rationalisation’” of those problems could have led to “almost wholesale enhancement of the network”, the council officials wrote.

Former councillor Elliot Weir told RNZ the plan had already been watered down in negotiation with the previous Labour Government, and while some were published in the council’s long-term plan they were not implemented.

“My understanding is none of those improvements got approval because that would cost ... we only got co-funding at essentially at our existing ongoing levels for our current services.

“It’s, I guess, better than nothing because they were threatening to potentially not even agree to co-funding at the current service levels.”

Weir said the Government could publish a new GPS “tomorrow” which could remove some of the restrictions councils faced in providing more efficient bus networks, and if co-funding was provided, some changes could be made quickly.

“You could start implementing a lot of those increases or do anything on the fares pretty much instantly, and then slowly over time roll them out. Because that those frequency increases have been approved in the public transport plan, they really just are waiting on funding to be available.”

Differing political priorities

Genter said the Luxon Government’s focus on cutting costs had “caused a lot of chaos for ideological reasons but now is a time when we’re as a country facing this fossil fuel crisis – it’s time for constructive, practical solutions”.

Bishop pointed out spending on overall public transport had increased to $6.4 billion in its 2024-27 national land transport programme, up from the previous $4.9b spend in Labour’s last term.

“That’s before you even count things like investment in the level crossings that we’ve committed to in Auckland, and the expansion of Metro Rail services ... we’ve purchased new trains for the Manawatū train line and the Masterton train line in Wellington, for example. So we stand by what the Government’s doing.”

Genter acknowledged the increase but said much of that was because of cost increases – and pointed out that nearly all the funding for bus upgrades had gone to Auckland and Manawatū.

“There are councils right across the country that worked up good new network improvements, and the Government can fund those in a relatively short period of time.

“Every step we can take to make it possible for people to save petrol and diesel is going to be good for the cost of living, for the people who can benefit from it, and good for the country.”

Bishop said he was working on a new draft Government Policy Statement on land transport out for consultation by the end of the year, set to take effect in 2027.

“I’m not going to get ahead of decisions that Cabinet will make, but as I say, we’ll be doing some hard thinking around this.

“What is important is that we continue to invest in the transport network, both from public transport, but also in terms of road maintenance and in terms of expanding road roading, which is what we’re doing through the Mount Vic project.”

– RNZ