An advocate for free public transport says the removal of discounts for children and half-price fares for young people under 25 tomorrow is going to worsen the cost of living crisis.
Scrapping the Labour government-era subsidies which gave children aged 5 to 12 free travel and half price fares for those aged 13-24 had been part of National's pre-election campaign commitments.
For most regions, age-based public transport fares will change on May 1. The change will not affect pre-existing discounts funded directly by councils, which usually include concessions for tertiary and secondary school students.
How much fares will rise depends on where you live. (Source: 1News)
However, hundreds of thousands of people would be affected by the move, which Fares Free New Zealand organiser Hana Pilkinton-Ching said would have huge impacts amid ongoing cost of living pressures.
"We're pretty devastated, especially at the impacts that this will have on families and young people and students who are already struggling to get by every week, this is just another blow," she said.
She said equitable access to public transport had beneficial flow-on effects to improving education rates, health and well-being and improving access to work.
"Making sure people can afford public transport is a key tool for that."
Pilkinton-Ching said good public transport usage was the "direct product of better investment into public transport," calling on the Government to invest in more sustainable, equitable public transport.
"We are continuing to fight for affordable public transport and continuing to build momentum behind the idea of free fares because we know that it is something that addresses so many issues that we need to address today."
"The mode shift from cars to public transport will flow from that, and we have plenty of evidence from overseas to support that."
Pilkinton-Ching said the "relatively small policy in the grand scheme of things" was still important and had a majority of the public in support.
"The savings made by pulling this discount are small.
"And for a student, the benefits of the tax cuts that these are going to fund actually don't outweigh the cost of losing these public transport discounts so as a young person in Aotearoa you're still worse off by the removal of these discounts in terms of the cost of living."
PM Christopher Luxon responds
Speaking to Breakfast, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said "a large number of people don't use public transport" and that patronage was down by 23%.
"The bigger issue is how we deal with the underlying issues in this economy. Which is really about lowering inflation. We know we've got a lot of work to do."
Luxon said the Government had ensured people on lower incomes and disabled people "still get their support" through reduced fares.
"We are making sure that people with community services cards, those with disability services can still get that support, there is obviously student discount fares that are in place."
He said the Government was working to deliver income tax relief for lower-middle income workers who were working "incredibly hard" to navigate the cost of living crisis.
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