Auckland's Privatized Transit a Warning for Toronto

Stanford's warnings about privatized public transit come from his experiences living in Auckland, New Zealand, where municipal governments were forced over decades to privatize public services, including transit. The result, he writes is that

"[Auckland's] transit system is the most fragmented, expensive and maddening I've ever used. And it's 100-per-cent private. The gory details provide a caution for those who believe the private market always does things better.

Auckland's regional government contracts a dozen different private firms to supply bus, rail and ferry services. A complex network of interlocking ownership links many of these suppliers...This hodge-podge is all the worse because each company accepts only its own tickets, and not those offered by competitors. Since inter-company transfers are impossible, bus routes can be insanely circuitous [and] tickets are expensive...Travelling 40 kilometres from the city's north to south costs $12.70 to $16.50 (depending which company is used) and takes two hours. A passenger travelling the same distance in Toronto...would pay $3 once, and require less than half the time. No wonder Aucklanders take transit one-quarter as often as Torontonians."