Free bus rides a step too far for Palmerston North city councillors

The opportunity for everyone in Palmerston North to have free bus rides for a month has been passed up by the city council, one of the casualties of keeping next year’s rates rise down to 7.7%.

Horizons Regional Council had asked for a $60,000 contribution to support the launch of the new all-electric bus services in February next year.

The proposal was promoted by Green city councillors Brent Barrett and Kaydee Zabelin as a way to encourage everyone to give the new, more frequent and reliable passenger transport service a go.

But a majority of councillors did not support writing a cheque for the regional council, especially given the Government’s Budget announcement of free fares for children under 13 and half-price fares for those under 25 years.

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Barrett said getting more people on buses was a benefit for everyone, getting cars off the roads, reducing emissions, and relieving congestion for those who still needed to drive trucks or cars.

He said the amount asked for equated to just 65 cents per resident.

People would only have to take one bus trip to be ahead financially, and if they used a bus every day for the month, they would be doing really well.

Zabelin and Cr Rachel Bowen both said it was a one-off opportunity to change habits for a lifetime.

Bowen said making bus travel the norm for children and young people would continue into their adult lives.

Zabelin said with people facing rising costs of living, there was likely to be increased interest in finding a cheaper way to travel.

Trying the new service for a month for free would help rebuild confidence in the quality and reliability of the city’s bus routes and timetables, she said.

But other councillors disagreed, Billy Meehan describing it as “a lollypop”, Leonie Hapeta saying it was “a nice to have”, and Vaughan Dennison saying the city council was already investing heavily in public transport, and still had to pay for a new bus terminal to support it.

Mayor Grant Smith said he initially supported the idea when he thought the money could come from the council’s low carbon fund.

He said that idea had been ruled out by bureaucracy – the fund could only be used to enhance the council’s own capital projects to make them more energy-efficient in the long term, and decisions on its use had been delegated to staff.

Smith said he could not justify asking 95,000 residents to contribute to a scheme that might only benefit 400 people.

The Horizons submission indicated it would pay for a one-month free trial and that the request to the city council would have supported a second month.

The way they voted:

For: Brent Barrett, Rachel Bowen, Pat Handcock, Lorna Johnson, Debi Marshall-Lobb, Kaydee Zabelin.

Against: Mark Arnott, Vaughan Dennison, Lew Findlay, Roly Fitzgerald, Leonie Hapeta, Billy Meehan, Karen Naylor, William Wood.