More than 1700 submissions were made on the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s (GWRC) draft Annual Plan in support of fairer fares for tertiary students in Wellington.
VUWSA has led the campaign, which pushes for a 50% discount for tertiary students on all regional public transport.
VUWSA President Rory Lenihan-Ikin described the response as “overwhelming.”
“When the council has previously shut down this idea, one of the reasons they used is that ratepayers don’t want to subsidise one particular group of users. […] In fact, a lot of Wellingtonians were under the impression tertiary students already had access to a discount.”
More than 400 of the 1700 submissions were from ratepayers.
The GWRC included a commitment to “consider” a tertiary fare in 2018 in its draft Annual Plan, but VUWSA are hopeful that public support will convince councillors to make a more concrete commitment.