Metlink to trial new and free fares in the New Year

Metlink announced today that it will be trialing a range of new fares in March next year, including free or heavily discounted fares on weekends.

Details of the trial are yet to be fully developed but could include a range of discounted, bundled and even free fares on the region’s bus and train services.

Scott Gallacher, General Manager for Metlink, says the trial will help provide valuable demand insight to help plan for growth and service design changes in the future as well as pave the way for new fare products as part of the introduction of integrated ticketing system.

“We want to test the resilience of the Metlink network during this trial to see how demand for services are affected when different price packages are put together. This is part of our ongoing commitment to passengers to provide a reliable, attractive, and modern public transport service across the region that builds on lessons learned at home and overseas,” says Scott Gallacher

This latest trial comes on the back of a number of exciting initiatives from Metlink, including: Early Bird Fares, Snapper on Rail for the Johnsonville line, Cashless Express Services, and On-Demand Services in Tawa.

Scott Gallacher says that fares are likely to be only one component of the trial with other initiatives across the network likely to feature too.

“We’ll be providing more detail on the trial in the New Year but like our growing electric fleet, the Hospital Express and our upcoming Airport Service next year - the message to passengers is that we want to be at the forefront of change, we want to test what’s possible and more importantly make people’s journeys better,” says Scott Gallacher.

The trial was announced at Greater Wellington’s Transport Committee today, with committee chair Roger Blakeley calling it a potential game changer not only for how people use and view public transport but for climate action and decarbonisation too.

“We’ll be providing data from this trial to our funding partners at Waka Kotahi so they can consider how public transport can be funded in the future to help our region and others encourage more people to take it up and leave cars behind,” says Cr Blakeley.