Community Connect

Community Connect is a programme to make public transport more affordable for Community Services Card (CSC) holders by providing a 50% concession on public transport services.

Budget 2022 confirmed $98m across four years to support Public Transport Authorities to implement a national wide rollout of Community Connect from later in 2022. Te Manatū Waka is working with other transport agencies and local councils on the implementation plan.

Community Connect has a range of important society, equity and environmental benefits:

• Improve transport equity – people on a low income 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 Community Services Card holders 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.
• Improving health outcomes – greater use of public transport, and reduced emissions from having less cars on the road as a result, will reduce the health impacts that emissions cause.

More information on how Community Connect will work, including when it will be implemented and how people can access the discount, is expected in the coming months.