Easy, sustainable ways to get around.
The Green Party will invest in modern, sustainable, and affordable transport options.
This will make it easier and cheaper for people to safely get around our cities and regions.
Aotearoa was once joined up by buses and a reliable passenger rail system. Fast, frequent and reliable public transport ran throughout our cities and towns.
After our rail network was sold off for private profit, it was returned to the people in disarray. Successive governments have failed to invest in our rail network or plan for the future in our urban areas. Our cities are now choked with cars, instead of flourishing with people.
People have been priced out of our central cities and now live in the outskirts, where they are poorly served by public transport and don’t have safe walking and biking infrastructure. This has left so many with no option but to rely on cars to get around, adding to congestion and making people vulnerable to oil price shocks.
The Green Party will invest in transport for the future so we all have real options to get around our communities, wherever we live. We’ll ease congestion with rapid buses and surface light rail in our biggest cities. We will fund councils to build linked-up bike networks, and invest in rail to move people and freight.
Giving people the freedom to take public transport or bike instead of being forced into cars will provide them immediate relief where it counts — their wallets.
Our plan
- Transform public transport networks, including building mass rapid transit in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and providing comprehensive bus lanes in all cities.
- Invest in nationwide rapid rail for passengers and freight to connect regions and major cities and contribute to economic development and decarbonisation.
- Introduce targeted subsidies for e-cargo bikes. Introduce e-bike sharing schemes in community hubs, to allow more families to save on transport costs.
- Fund affordable, reliable, interregional rural bus services, and on-demand public transport, including by-Māori for-Māori public transport to serve kōhanga reo and rural schools.
- Extend Community Connect to provide free fares for students and apprentices, community service card holders, everyone under 18, and all Total Mobility card holders.
- Enable the provision of transport services publicly instead of for profit by replacing the Public Transport Operating Model.
- Create safe walking and biking routes to all community hubs including schools through building more bike lanes and safe crossings, and lowering speed limits near schools.
- Implement a phase-out date for the import of fossil-fuel powered vehicles, build more EV (electric vehicle) charging stations, remove regulatory barriers to EV car-sharing and re-introduce incentives for EV uptake.