Community Connect | Ministry of Transport

Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

Community Connect is a targeted package aimed at making public transport more affordable.

From 01 July 2023, Community Connect provides:

half price fares for Community Services Card holders
half price fares for people aged 24 and under
half price fares on total mobility services
free fares for children aged 12 and under.

Approximately 2.2 million people could benefit from Community Connect.

The work to date

01

Nov 2022

Documents proactively released.

Below are documents approved for proactive release November 2022.

More information and related documents

Below are documents approved for proactive release November 2022.

Get in touch

info@transport.govt.nz

Related work

Work programme

Let's Get Wellington Moving

Supporting the Minister of Transport to agree the Government’s share of this transport initiative for the Wellington region.

Work programme

Metropolitan (metro) rail

Supporting metro passenger rail services in Auckland and Wellington.

Work programme

Transport Outlook

Using data available from around New Zealand to examine the current and future state of transport demand in New Zealand.

Work programme

New Zealand Household Travel Survey

Collecting information about New Zealanders’ daily travel.

Public Transport Operating Model

Developing a framework for affordable urban bus and ferry services that people want to use.

Work programme

Public transport decarbonisation

Supporting the uptake of zero-emission public transport buses.

Work programme

SuperGold Card public transport funding

Providing all eligible New Zealanders aged 65 years or over, and those under 65 who receive the New Zealand Superannuation or the Veterans Pension, with free off-peak travel on public transport.

The Congestion Question

Investigating whether congestion pricing should be introduced in Auckland.

Services

The services that are eligible for Community Connect are:

Public transport contracted by Local Councils
Total Mobility services
Hokianga car ferry (passenger fares only)
Te Huia and Capital Connection inter-regional trains.

Where to go for local transport providers

Information on how to access the concessions is available from local public transport ticketing providers:

Auckland: Auckland Transport concessions(external link)
Wellington: Snapper concessions (external link)
Christchurch: Metro card website (external link)
Rest of New Zealand: BeeCard - Community Connect(external link)

Benefits

Community Connect has a range of benefits:

Improve transport equity - people on lower incomes spend a greater proportion of their household budgets on transport than higher income earners. This creates equity and access issues. Reducing the price of public transport for lower income individuals allows us to target price decreases in a fairer and more equitable way.
Reducing congestion - by encouraging people to use public transport instead of private vehicles.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport - by supporting mode shift way from private vehicles to public transport. This will support the wider work of achieve a 41% reduction in transport emissions by 2035, as set out in the Emissions Reduction Plan(external link).
Improving health outcomes - greater use of public transport encourages active modes resulting in positive health benefits for individuals. On a larger scale, reduced emissions from having less cars on the road as a result of greater public transport use, will reduce the health impacts that emissions cause.
Improving road safety: by reducing the number of private vehicles on our roads, particularly around congested areas like schools (where there are a number of vulnerable road users).

Funding

Funding for Community Connect which has come from:

Budget 2022:(external link) $98m across four years to support half price fares for Community Services Card holders. There are approximately 1 million Community Service Card holders in New Zealand.
Budget 2023:(external link) an additional $327m across four years to extend Community Connect to enable discounts to the following groups:
- free fares for 5-12 year olds
- half price fares for 13-24 year olds
- permanent half price Total Mobility fares for Total Mobility card holders (which the Government announced in December 2022)