Metlink begins work towards introducing half price fares

Metlink fares will be halved from early April following the Government’s announcement yesterday evening that public transport fees across the country will be temporarily halved.

Greater Wellington Chair, Daran Ponter said the changes would mean the livelihoods of Wellingtonians will benefit in many ways.

“This is a demanding timeline for the introduction of such significant change. But the almost immediate outcome for Wellingtonians will be the relief from the extremes of prices at the pump and a lower cost of living. This will have positive flow on effects, from people’s ability to get to and from work to the ability for families to take their children to school.

“Greater Wellington welcomes lower prices and is strongly motivated to work with the Government to make them happen.”

Metlink General Manager Scott Gallacher said Metlink would work quickly to overcome some of the operational challenges posed by the fare reduction to ensure passengers will benefit fully.

“We’re very confident we’ll get everything up and running from the first week of April. Our network has shown in the past two covid affected years how adaptable it can be, so we know it’s possible, we just need to make sure that all aspects of the network are in an appropriate state of play.

“As soon as we have had an opportunity to confirm the details around how we will be able to deliver the Government’s announcement across all parts of our network, we will share this with our communities, across the bus, rail, ferry and Total Mobility networks,” added Gallacher.

“We are also still very much in a COVID environment, and we must ensure that we can cope with what could be a significant increase in patronage. The network, especially our amazing frontline staff, is already under strain from Omicron and everyone’s ongoing patience, kindness and understanding at this time is going to be welcomed”.

A formal decision on this approach will be discussed by council in the coming days and passengers can keep up to date with the latest by visiting metlink.org.nz.