On The Case For Nationalising Our Urban Bus Services

When it comes to funding and managing public transport, should local government or central government bear most of the responsibility for delivering a quality service? Ratepayers or taxpayers? Those basic questions re-surfaced yesterday, after the government announced its intention to scrap the Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) imposed by the last National government in 2013. That model had required councils to use private contractors to run the buses, via a cut-throat competitive tendering process.

As the critics of PTOM warned from the outset, the model ran the services right into the ground. Cancellations and driver shortages became the norm.“PTOM was supposed to increase patronage and create efficiencies. The competitive tender process however, hasn’t always delivered the best outcomes for communities,” is how Local Government New Zealand President Stuart Crosby politely summed up the changes yesterday. In urban centres, the profit-driven race to the bottom promoted by the PTOM model has been a disaster for the public and the drivers, alike.

In announcing the new Sustainable Public Transport Framework model, Transport Minister Michael Wood made it sound as if hallelujah, a whole new day is dawning:

The new Sustainable Public Transport Framework will help to create a public transport system that is reliable, an attractive career opportunity and a credible alternative to using cars to get around.“ Improving the conditions of employees will make it easier to recruit and retain the workforce, allowing frequent and reliable services. This will also provide job security by allowing drivers the opportunity to maintain employment if there is a change in operator.

“The new model will also give local authorities more flexibility and control over how public transport is planned and delivered, so they can have a solution that works for their communities.

Paying the drivers

Fine. Sounds good. Yet because the National government’s ideological experiment in private sector delivery has failed so comprehensively, a fresh infusion of funds will now be needed to restore wages, workplace conditions and the bus fleets to levels capable of delivering the stellar service that Wood is talking about. So far though, the government seems to be thinking that since it has given local councils the power to run the services, then local councils can also (somehow) find the money to run those services fairly and efficiently in future.

That sounds like a heroic assumption. Ratepayers do not seem to be in a mood to pay for anything extra that doesn’t involve a rugby ball. In its wisdom, the Christchurch council has just chosen to risk bankrupting the city in future by building an extravagant new sports stadium. Dunedin is still paying for its stadium folly. Wellington has crumbling infrastructure. Auckland ratepayers are perpetually on the brink of revolt.

True, we do already operate a mixed model in the funding of public transport. In the grand old Kiwi tradition of socialising the costs and privatising the profits, even the PTOM model was subsidised with public money. To bring bus services back from the dead though, significant additional funds will be required, and central government is really the only game in town. All we should be talking about is the best mechanism by which the state can deliver the funding required.

Regardless, the dinosaurs from the coach lines have been repeating the neo-liberal canard that private sector delivery is inherently good, and state delivery is inherently bad. In reality, the opposite is much closer to the truth. It was the state that had to resurrect Air New Zealand after the private sector ran that essential service into the ground, and the same thing happened with our rail network. No real surprise then, to find that private sector greed and incompetence has almost put paid to our bus services as well.

The argument for central government funding to restore those services - in urban centres at least – is not simply because this is an essential service. In all its forms, public transport also happens to be central to the government’s ability to meet its climate change obligations. Bus services run properly are a key means of getting more cars off the road, and reducing the pollution that’s causing global warming. We can’t afford to continue to atomise the transport sector in pursuit of some crony capitalist’s short term profits. It is only when central and local government work in tandem that we can coordinate transport funding across the board– and regardless of whether that means buses, trains, ferries, planes or light rail… All the way down to the provision of walking tracks and safe bike lanes.

That‘s the vision. This morning though, one can just feel happy for the bus drivers. This First Union press release sets out why they’ve got good reason to celebrate:

One Auckland bus driver who wished to remain anonymous said that the new public transport framework was a cause for celebration with colleagues today. "It’s long overdue," said the driver. "PTOM pushed our wages down by making the bus companies compete with each other for contracts, and the new system will go a long way towards fixing the problem.

We’re delighted that what we’ve been saying in all of those meetings with Councils, bus companies and Ministers has finally paid off. It's an historic moment for bus drivers - we've been acknowledged and listened to."

So…Are you ready… to do the bus stop?

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