Unsuccessful bids from the Wellington, Porirua and Lower Hutt city councils, and the Greater Wellington Regional Council – which runs Metlink – for New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) funding stretched across 22 public transport projects, according to an Official Information Act (OIA) request submitted by Green MP Julie Anne Genter’s office.

That included almost $26m for the Wellington City Council to convert a lane on each direction of the harbour quays for buses only, $11.7m towards redeveloping Waterloo station where its failing central canopy needed replacing, and almost $3m to buy 15 four-car trains for the Wellington rail network.

Other casualties included new bus shelters on the Golden Mile, a layover depot in Wellington’s CBD for up to 30 electric buses and a Johnsonville public transport hub.

They are among 78 public transport projects across the country, totalling almost $782m, to not get a slice of the funding pool.

NZTA allocated $3.3b of the national land transport plan to the Wellington region in 2024, giving funding to the Petone to Grenada road, the new Melling interchange and 18 new battery-electric trains for the Capital Connection and Wairarapa Line.

Genter, the Greens’ transport spokesperson, said the rejected funding - combined with the Government’s directive for fares and advertising to make up a larger share of public transport income - was behind Metlink’s fare increases last week. The regional council said it was paying $200,000 extra a week for diesel because of the current Middle East conflict.

Tom James, the deputy chairperson of the regional council’s public transport committee, said being denied government funding meant ratepayers had to pick up the tab on public transport projects.

Genter said relying on council budgets entirely for “critical” transport projects like the harbour quay bus corridors was “unusual”.

“You would expect central government to be funding important projects like that,” she said. “That means councils, which have much smaller budgets and more limited ability to borrow for capital investment, are having to spend more rates in order to deliver these projects.

“That means they’re having to put up fares to help continue running the bus services we have.”

Transport Minister Chris Bishop said funding requests for regional and national projects significantly exceeded the forecast revenue available through the National Land Transport Fund.

“Investment in public transport services and infrastructure has increased to $7.65b,” he said. “In the Wellington region, investment in public transport services and infrastructure has increased from $1.2b to $1.6b.”

But Genter argued that “for a fraction” of what was being spent on planning two new tunnels and major State Highway 1 changes in central Wellington, the Government could instead keep the region’s public transport affordable.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.