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Planning for public transport

Updated: 21 May 2012

Public transport - bus, rail, ferry and cable cars - are key travel choices for many New Zealanders. Encouraging more New Zealanders to use public transport will help alleviate congestion and improve the reliability of travel times on New Zealand’s urban road networks. It is important to ensure that public transport provision is as efficient and effective as possible. Our work in the area of public transport contributes directly to improving the effectiveness of public transport, one of our five strategic priorities.

Preparing a public transport funding proposal for the 2012-2015 NLTP

NZTA has prepared a document that sets out guidance about the basis on which the NZTA will invest in public transport proposals.

On this page

Our role in public transport

We work in five main areas of activity, through which we are helping provide effective public transport services. Our areas of activity are:

  • assisting and advising - we work in partnership with our stakeholders, providing assistance and advice across all our core activities and key workstreams
  • planning and funding - we develop and provide operational policy advice to our key stakeholders, and we also provide input to the development of funding and planning policy
  • monitoring
  • regulating and licensing buses and rail operation
  • Providing public transport infrastructure on the state highway network.

See more about these activities below.

We carry out this work in close collaboration with a number of key stakeholders:

  • the Ministry of Transport
  • local government
  • 'approved organisation', eg regional and territorial local authorities
  • public transport operators
  • New Zealand Bus and Coach Association and other stakeholder groups
  • the public and public transport users.

Legislation, rules and standards development

We’ve contributed to the development or amendment of the Public Transport Management Act 2008 (PTMA) amendment (external link).

Legislative rules/requirements for buses include:

The vehicle must also meet other rules for vehicle systems, parts and components, which are all listed in Land Transport Rules.

Guidance for developing regional public transport plans

Our Guidelines for the development of regional public transport plans are designed to help regional councils meet their obligations under the Public Transport Management Act 2008 (external link) when preparing regional public transport plans. It provides advice on meeting statutory requirements as well as examples of good practice, and shows how the plan process can be used to add value to regional councils’ public transport planning and management functions.

National farebox recovery policy

The NZTA's national farebox recovery policy is designed to encourage a greater focus on efficiency in the provision of public transport services than previously. This policy sets out the NZTA's expectations for regional farebox recovery policies developed by regional councils as part of their Regional Public Transport Plan.

Procuring public transport services

The new procurement environment supports long-term strategic timelines around the procurement of public transport services and infrastructure. The procurement procedure in the Procurement manual will help approved organisations to get better value from the money spent on public transport.

See our updated procurement procedures.

Contract price adjustment

As part of our review of procurement procedures we’ve introduced an updated cost indexation formula and implemented a standardised application for public transport contracts.

See the new public transport indices and revised cost adjustment factors (PDF, 46KB).

Encouraging more effective public transport

We’re working with regional councils to help improve the effectiveness of public transport services. This involves assessing the interaction between elements such as routes, bus stop location and public transport planning to identify how we can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public transport journeys. This initial work will help achieve a more structured public transport network.

Public transport fares policy

We’re developing a best practice rationale to help regional councils determine fare levels for contracted public transport services. The purpose of this project is to support regional councils to improve the return on investment made in public transport services. This will help create more efficient public transport networks and increase usage. The project will deliver guidance on fares policy decision making for the New Zealand context and may include a scenario model for testing the efficiency of changes to fares. The guidance is expected to be finalised in late 2009.

Increasing value for money through public transport technology

Information technology is playing an increasing role in the efficient delivery of public transport. To achieve the best value for money and assist regional councils, we’ve established a specialist public transport technology team to coordinate efforts and consolidate and share knowledge. Find out more.

Accessible public transport

Requirements for urban buses in New Zealand (the 'RUB')

The RUB is New Zealand's common standard for urban bus quality. It sets out the common dimensions and features of an urban bus. The RUB is used by regional councils and Auckland Transport in their urban bus contracts.

The quality of buses is important for creating a valued customer experience, and attracting patronage from people who have a greater choice about whether they use public transport or not. it is also important for accessibility reasons.

Read more about these requirements.

SuperGold Card

The SuperGold Card (external link) provides free off-peak travel on bus, rail and ferry services to people aged 65 years or older. This is a partnership with the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Social Development and Treasury to deliver the scheme.

We’re currently conducting a review of the SuperGold Card scheme to ensure its longer-term sustainability. The Terms of Reference of the review are yet to be finalised, and we’ll post further information as the review progresses.

Read a brief introduction to the scheme (PDF, 43KB).

Learn about the new reporting and claims process (PDF, 41KB), including the:

For all past general circulars on the SuperGold Card please see general circulars.

Total Mobility

Funded in partnership by local and central government, the Total Mobility scheme (external link) subsidises taxi services to people with serious mobility constraints. It provides vouchers that discount the normal fare by 50 percent. It also provides funding to help purchase and install wheelchair hoists in taxi vans. Local government (usually regional councils) manages and operates the scheme in most regions.

Read about:

Rail governance, funding and safety

We're working with the Ministry of Transport, Treasury and KiwiRail to agree on a model for the development of a nationally consistent approach to rail ownership, governance and funding.

Learn more about rail safety regulation.

Public transport research

See our collection of research into public transport-related areas. This research informs the development of policy and is a background to planning and funding decisions. We commission, peer review and provide input to a range of public transport research areas.

Trial projects

Bikes on buses trial

An Environment Canterbury initiative allows buses to carry bikes on a front-mounted rack in urban scheduled public transport services.

We’re working closely with Environment Canterbury on an extended, larger trial to consider technical and safety issues, such as:

  • the increased front overhang with a fitted bike rack
  • the effect when a bus is turning or manoeuvring on New Zealand roads.

We’ll feed the results of the trial into the rule-making process, which could allow bike racks to be fitted to buses used in public transport services on a much wider basis, and without the need for exemptions from land transport rules.

We’ve also commissioned research on the integration of cycling and public transport. Local and regional authorities will be able to build credible business cases for such initiatives in the future.

Providing public transport infrastructure on the state highway network

We develop state highway infrastructure to support the operation of effective bus services. This includes providing bus priority lanes and bus stops on the state highway network.

We are also the road controlling authority for Auckland’s 6.2km Northern Busway.

Find out more about our state highway activities.

NLTP funding proposals

Related links