New rules around public transport ownership

BY JAMES PAUL

Transport Minister Hon Michael Wood has announced new rules that could allow councils to own their public transport.

The new transport plan involves the Government dropping the current Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) and replacing it with a Sustainable Public Transport Framework.

The Land Transport Management Act will also be amended under the new model to allow operational tweaks and have broader things considered when setting up a public transport service.

These would include transparency of operating costs, service performance, the types of buses and ferries used on the service, and the terms and conditions of employees. Wood said in a press statement that “workers and public transport users are at the heart of the new Sustainable Public Transport Framework”.

“We are rolling out a new public transport model that will prioritise fair and equitable treatment of employees, mode-shift, and improved environment and health outcomes.”

The new model could allow councils to own and operate services in-house, which Wood anticipates will support on-demand public transport services, improve pay and working conditions, deliver routes and services that reflect community needs, and incentivise the decarbonisation of bus fleets. which will have a new focus and new objectives:

• public transport services supports mode-shift from private motor vehicles, by being integrated, reliable, frequent, accessible, affordable, and safe;

• employment and engagement of the public transport workforce is fair and equitable, providing for a sustainable labour market and sustainable provision of public transport services;

• well-used public transport services reduce the environmental and health impact of land transport, including by reducing reliance on single-occupancy vehicles and by using zero-emission technology; and

• provision of services supports value for money and efficiency from public transport investment while achieving the first three objectives. From an industry perspective, Bus and Coach Association Chief Executive Ben McFadgen disagrees with the decision and doesn’t think the pendulum needs to swing that far back. He told Morning Report that “the idea public transport will be more effective and efficient under public ownership is fundamentally unsound”.

“If you go back 30-40 years to when we had most of our buses running through councils and look at the inefficiencies back then, you can’t help but feel that we’re going back to a very, very similar situation where fleets weren’t well maintained and the services themselves fell far short of what was required to get Kiwis around the country.”

He says the current system “isn’t that broken, and a few settings could just be changed”.

“Particularly for addressing the driver shortage, nationalisation of public transport services will not resolve that. You can always change the focus to more public value, instead of focusing on the lowest cost, which could have been done under the PTOM system – there’s no reason why you couldn’t do that.

“In fact, if the Government had focused a little bit more on public value and delivering services, then we wouldn’t be in the situation we are now.”

However, Tramways Union Wellington Branch Secretary, Kevin O'Sullivan said his membership has been wanting the change to happen “since day one”. The current model “was a complete failure” and the union’s initial opposition to it had been vindicated.

“That model has been a complete disaster. It’s just got to change. There will be no improvement until there’s a higher level of state control. The current model isn’t working and things need to change and this is a signal that change is on the way.”

O’Sullivan described the Bus and Coach Association’s beliefs that councils, in collaboration with the union, could not run an efficient bus service as “old thinking”.

“It’s a public service so the profit motive has to be one of the lesser considerations. If the government's targets for public transport were to be met, which was not happening at present either in terms of fewer emissions or the services, it needed to be run under some form of state control.”

In 2021, the PTOM was reviewed, with a focus on:

• the objectives

• decarbonisation of the public transport bus fleet

• roles and relationships in the public transport sector

• the labour market in the public transport bus sector

• services that operate outside of

PTOM (exempt and excluded services)

• on-demand public transport services According to the Ministry of Transport, the framework will prioritise mode-shift, fair and equitable treatment of employees, and improved environment and health outcomes.

“The new framework will help to make working in public transport a more attractive career option, in a sector that pays well and better looks after its people.”

The legislative and operational reforms for the new framework will be progressed over the course of 2022 and 2023. Following the reforms, the framework will be implemented through future service planning and delivery.

Wood told the NZ Herald that this model along with the Government’s key industrial relations reform, Fair Pay Agreements, would attract more people to become public transport drivers, alleviating current shortages.