Where to begin. Let me try to sum this up simply before going into more detail.
On Sunday 13 March 2011 NZBus have decided in their wisdom to scrap weekly passes. In the middle of the month. After only just recently (within the last 3 weeks) changing monthly passes to start and finish on a calendar month.
What this means is that a passenger who's weekly pass runs out in the middle of the calendar month, has no real choice in catching a bus for the rest of the month but by paying for a full monthly pass - getting only 2 and a bit weeks worth of use out of it.
To add insult to injury this coincides with the the raising of the price of a monthly pass. So not only will commuters have to pay a full month's fare for substantially less than a months service, it will cost them more than for previous months.
To be clear, it's not like regular commuters have any other option. The only other way to pay for a bus fare is to pay one day at a time, or by purchasing 10-ride tickets. There is no price for a 10 ride ticket on the nzbus or maxx websites, but a Discovery Pass for a days travel costs $15. Suffice it to say that compared to the outgoing weekly passes this is prohibitive.
There are many finer details to this whole saga.
The fact that NZBus only changed their ticketing scheme under a month ago. The old monthly passes that I have been using for 8 years of daily bus travel were scrapped in favour of these "calendar" monthly passes. The fact that these passes are no longer able to be purchased on a bus (yes that's right, you can't buy the ticket to ride the bus on that bus). The fact that weekly passes have obviously proven so popular as it's nigh impossible to finish your old monthly pass to coincide exactly with the start of a calendar month.
There are many discrepancies with bus ticketing in general. That the daily $15 Discovery pass includes passage by ferry - whether or not that's actually an option for you. That weekly passes are for 7 days. This smacks of money grubbing - I'd be willing to bet that hardly any regular purchasers of a weekly pass use the bus on a weekend. That you could purchase weekly passes on the bus but not at a ticket agent, and monthly passes at an agent and not the bus. What is going on there?!
I have many many many long hours of bus travel under my belt. I am a model Auckland bus commuter - persisting with what is the best choice regardless of how uncomfortable that choice has been at times. Bussing is a chore in Auckland. You are at the mercy of terrible terrible service, at times horrible grumpy drivers, lateness, randomness, erratic timetables, often awful busses - old, smelly, hot, cold, disgraceful.
Speak to any regular bus travellers and you'll hear horror stories. Why do we do it?
Because it's cheap. And because NZBus have really done an incredible job on their timetables, making it damn near as convenient as it can get. Credit where it's due, the network and timetable are impressive.
With this new ticketing regime they have taken a hugely inconvenient and ultimately expensive leap backwards. Something must be done.
