Resources

A series of four surveys were undertaken looking at the half-price public transport fares that were introduced on 1 April 2022.

The first survey, run over three months up to August 2022 and reported in RN 009, November 2022, found that half-price fares generated an additional 7% of journeys on public transport; 1% were completely new, 3% came from car/taxi and 3% came from walking or cycling.

The second survey, run over the three months to October 2022 and reported in RN 009A, February 2023, found that while public transport use had not yet recovered to pre-COVID levels, the increased patronage from half-price fares represented a third of all (then) current public transport users.

The third and fourth surveys were run immediately before and after the end of the half-price public transport fares on 30 June 2023, and reported in RN 009B and RN 009C respectively. Key results from the surveys include:

• Public transport boardings increased from July 2022, while half-price fares were in effect. However, this had not returned to pre-COVID levels and changes to travel patterns limited this increase. Across the full 14 months of half-price fares 45% of adult New Zealanders reported using public transport: this equates to 22% who would have used it anyway, and 23% who were new or boosted their public transport use due to the reduced fares.
• When half-price fares were in effect, 32% of patronage was influenced by the reduced fares. Mode shift to public transport was 15% from walking and cycling and 12% from cars and taxis. 53% of users would have taken public transport anyway and 15% didn’t even know that half-price fares applied.
• The impact was greatest for groups with high levels of pre-existing patronage. This reflects previous findings, which shows that urban residents have greater access to public transport and were better placed to benefit from half-price fares.

These results provide good evidence on the impact of fare changes as a public transport intervention.

Links to the resulting research notes are below.

Keywords:
half-price, mode shift, patronage, public transport