PTOM Unit Patronage, Fare and Subsidy Information for Otago
Tony Randle made this Official Information request to Otago Regional Council
The request was partially successful.
      From: Tony Randle
      
    
    Dear Otago Regional Council,
I am interested in the extent to which Otago public transport is subsidised.
For each PTOM unit for ORC public transport services (bus, train and ferry) and for the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022,23 & 2023/24, can the ORC please provide:
1) The patronage data for the unit by month
2) The fare Revenue for the unit by month
3) The data that shows the extent to which the unit is subsidised by month
4) The Commerciality Ratio for the unit by month
For any information that cannot be provided monthly, then the information provided annually is requested.
If this information is held in electronic form, it is preferred that the information is provided in its complete and original format.
Yours faithfully,
Tony Randle
      From: Tony Randle
      
    
    Dear Otago Regional Council,
On 10 July 2025 I sent the ORC a reqeust for public transport PTOM information for the past financial years.
Can the ORC please acknoweldge this information request and confirm when the requested information will be provided?
Yours faithfully,
Tony Randle
        From: Customer Services
        Otago Regional Council
      
    
    Kia ora Tony,
We acknowledge receipt of your official information request received by us
 10 July 2025 for:
I am interested in the extent to which Otago public transport is
 subsidised.
For each PTOM unit for ORC public transport services (bus, train and
 ferry) and for the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022,23 & 2023/24,
 can the ORC please provide:
1) The patronage data for the unit by month
2) The fare Revenue for the unit by month
3) The data that shows the extent to which the unit is subsidised by month
4) The Commerciality Ratio for the unit by month
For any information that cannot be provided monthly, then the information
 provided annually is requested.
If this information is held in electronic form, it is preferred that the
 information is provided in its complete and original format.
We apologise for the delay in acknowledging your Local Government Official
 Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) request and actioning it. We
 acknowledge that we are outside of the statutory 20 day timeframe. We will
 endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and in any event
 no later than 3 October 2025. If we are unable to respond to your request
 by then, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.
Please note that your LGOIMA request was not referred to the legal team,
 who manages LGOIMA requests at Council.
We are undertaking an internal review to determine the circumstances that
 led to this oversight.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience or concern this may have
 caused.
If you have any queries, please contact us by return email. If any
 additional factors come to light which are relevant to your request,
 please contact us so that these can be taken into account.
Kā mihi,
Janet & Kelly
Legal
[1][IMG] [email address]
[2][IMG][3][IMG][4][IMG]
Important notice
This email contains information which is confidential and may be subject
 to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
 peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If
 you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return
 email or telephone (03 474-0827) and delete this email. The Otago Regional
 Council accepts no responsibility for changes made to this email or to any
 attachments following the original transmission from its offices. Thank
 you.
References
Visible links
 1. https://www.orc.govt.nz/
 2. https://www.facebook.com/OtagoRegionalCo...
 3. https://www.linkedin.com/authwall?trk=bf...
 4. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC77y56i...
        From: Customer Services
        Otago Regional Council
      
    
    Kia ora Tony,
We refer to your official information request received by us 10 July 2025
 for:
I am interested in the extent to which Otago public transport is
 subsidised.
For each PTOM unit for ORC public transport services (bus, train and
 ferry) and for the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022,23 & 2023/24,
 can the ORC please provide:
1) The patronage data for the unit by month
2) The fare Revenue for the unit by month
3) The data that shows the extent to which the unit is subsidised by month
4) The Commerciality Ratio for the unit by month
For any information that cannot be provided monthly, then the information
 provided annually is requested.
If this information is held in electronic form, it is preferred that the
 information is provided in its complete and original format.
We are required under the Local Government Official Information and
 Meetings Act 1987 to advise you of our decision on your request no later
 than 20 working days after the day we received your request.
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to meet that time limit and we are
 therefore writing to notify you of an extension of the time to make our
 decision, to 17 October 2025.
This extension is necessary because to make a decision on your request, we
 are currently still consulting and are therefore unable to provide the
 information within the original time limit.
If you wish to discuss this with us, please contact us by return email.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of
 this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
 [1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Kā mihi,
Kelly
Legal
[2][IMG] [email address]
[3][IMG][4][IMG][5][IMG]
Important notice
This email contains information which is confidential and may be subject
 to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
 peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If
 you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return
 email or telephone (03 474-0827) and delete this email. The Otago Regional
 Council accepts no responsibility for changes made to this email or to any
 attachments following the original transmission from its offices. Thank
 you.
References
Visible links
 1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
 2. https://www.orc.govt.nz/
 3. https://www.facebook.com/OtagoRegionalCo...
 4. https://www.linkedin.com/authwall?trk=bf...
 5. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC77y56i...
        From: Customer Services
        Otago Regional Council
      
    
    Kia ora Tony,
 
Your official information request received by us 4 September 2025 for
 Public Transport PTOM for the past 4 financial years has been granted. You
 requested:
 
For each PTOM unit for ORC public transport services (bus, train, and
 ferry) and for the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, & 2023/24,
 can ORC please provide:
 1. The patronage data for the unit by month
  2. The fare revenue for the unit by month
  3. The data that shows the extent to which the unit is subsidised by
 month
  4. The Commerciality Ratio for the unit by month
For any information that cannot be provided monthly, then the information
 provided annually is requested. If this information is held in electronic
 form, it is preferred that the information is provided in its complete and
 original format.
 
The information is attached. Some information you have requested is
 commercially sensitive and has been withheld in accordance with section
 7(2)(b)(ii) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act
 1987.
Instead of monthly data we have provided the total patronage and revenue
 across our public transport network for the requested financial years.
 
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of
 this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
 [1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss this decision with us, please feel free to contact
 us by return email.
 
Kā mihi,
Kelly
Legal
[2][IMG] [email address]
[3][IMG][4][IMG][5][IMG]
Important notice
This email contains information which is confidential and may be subject
 to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
 peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If
 you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return
 email or telephone (03 474-0827) and delete this email. The Otago Regional
 Council accepts no responsibility for changes made to this email or to any
 attachments following the original transmission from its offices. Thank
 you.
References
Visible links
 1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
 2. https://www.orc.govt.nz/
 3. https://www.facebook.com/OtagoRegionalCo...
 4. https://www.linkedin.com/authwall?trk=bf...
 5. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC77y56i...
      From: Tony Randle
      
    
    Dear Customer Services,
Firstly, I must note an error in the ORC response that this response is for "Your official information request received by us 4 September 2025".
I requested this information via the FYI website on 10 July 2025. The ORC response of 8 September 2025 states "We acknowledge receipt of your official information request received by us 10 July 2025". Your follow-up email of 3 October 2025 asking for a time extension also states, "We refer to your official information request received by us 10 July 2025". Can you please correct the ORC response noting that it is in response to my request sent to you on 10 July 2025?
I would further note that this response was due one month after the request was submitted and now only provided over four months later. However, there is no mention of the ORC's failure to meet mandatory LGOIMA timeframes or any apology for this large delay which is dissappointing.
With respect to the information withheld in the response, I note this is not a normal information request because publishing this requested information is the requirement for regional in Section 127 (1)(b) of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 (LMTA2003):
    (1) A regional council—
        (a) may require an operator of a service in a unit to provide the regional council with patronage data and fare revenue data for that service; and
        (b) must publish—
            (i) patronage data provided under paragraph (a); and
            (ii) data that shows the extent to which the service is subsidised; and
        (c) may disclose the fare revenue data provided under paragraph (a) to any person who is registered by the regional council to tender for the provision of a service.
[https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publ...
The ORC's response says it is withholding the cost and Efficiency Ratio for individual units "in accordance with section 7(2)(b)(ii) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987", I draw your attention to Section 116 of the LMTA2003 and, in particular Sections (3) and (4):
(3) This section does not require a regional council or the Agency to disclose information that it would be entitled to withhold in response to a request for information under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 or the Official Information Act 1982.
(4) However, subsection (3) does not limit or affect—
    (a) a regional council’s obligation to publish information under section 127(1)(b); or
    (b) the obligations of a regional council to provide information under section 128.
[https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publ...
As the LMTA2003 116(4)(a) specifically exempts this requested information from being withheld under LGOIMA, I respectfully request that the ORC provides all the requested information for each PTOM unit.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Randle
        From: Customer Services
        Otago Regional Council
      
    
    Kia ora Tony,
We acknowledge receipt of your email dated 14 October 2025.
We acknowledge that our release to you of 13 October 2025 contained an
 error. Your information request was received by us on 10 July 2025, not
 04 September 2025. We refer to our correspondence to you of 08 September
 2025, where we apologised for the delay, acknowledged that your request
 was not completed within the statutory timeframe imposed by LGOIMA and
 identified the process errors which caused it.
We do not agree that s166(4)(a) of the Land Transport Management Act 2003
 prevents the requested information from being withheld under the Local
 Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 as that section and
 subpart of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 are about the creation
 of Regional Public Transport Plans, and the publishing requirements those
 Regional Public Transport Plans have.
If you disagree with our decision, you are able to seek an investigation
 and review of our decision by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make
 a complaint is available at [1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone
 0800 802 602. 
Please let us know if we can do anything else to assist with this
 response.
Kā mihi,
Finn
Legal
[2][IMG] [email address]
[3][IMG][4][IMG][5][IMG]
Important notice
This email contains information which is confidential and may be subject
 to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
 peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If
 you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return
 email or telephone (03 474-0827) and delete this email. The Otago Regional
 Council accepts no responsibility for changes made to this email or to any
 attachments following the original transmission from its offices. Thank
 you.
References
Visible links
 1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
 2. https://www.orc.govt.nz/
 3. https://www.facebook.com/OtagoRegionalCo...
 4. https://www.linkedin.com/authwall?trk=bf...
 5. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC77y56i...
      From: Tony Randle
      
    
    Dear Customer Services,
Land Transport Management Act 2003 Section 127(1) states that:
   "A regional council ...
      (a) may require an operator of a service in a unit to provide the regional council with patronage data and fare revenue data for that service; and 
      (b) MUST PUBLISH ... patronage data provided under paragraph (a); and ... data that shows the extent to which the service is subsidised"
Given the ORC's position is the requirement outlined under Section 127(1)(b) that applies to its regional public transport plan, can the ORC please confirm that its regional public transport plans do contain this information for each unit as mandated by under the Land Transport Management Act 2003 and outline which pages contain this information in its latest plan?
Yours sincerely,
Tony Randle
        From: Customer Services
        Otago Regional Council
      
    
    Kia ora Tony,
We have your email of 14 October.
On page 131 of ORC’s Regional Public Transport Plan (the Plan) we set out
 the most recent annual private share ratio - [1]Regional Public Transport
 Plan.
The Plan does not include information in unit tables as you have requested
 however, this information was provided to you in our LGOIMA response
 aggregated by units per financial year.
You have our decision on your LGOIMA request, and we have released the
 information held to you.
LGOIMA SR.5793 has been completed.
You have been advised how to complain to the Ombudsman about that
 decision.
Kā mihi,
Finn
Legal
[2][IMG] [email address]
[3][IMG][4][IMG][5][IMG]
Important notice
This email contains information which is confidential and may be subject
 to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
 peruse, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this email or attachments. If
 you have received this in error, please notify us immediately by return
 email or telephone (03 474-0827) and delete this email. The Otago Regional
 Council accepts no responsibility for changes made to this email or to any
 attachments following the original transmission from its offices. Thank
 you.
References
Visible links
 1. https://www.orc.govt.nz/media/d4rd2stz/p...
 2. https://www.orc.govt.nz/
 3. https://www.facebook.com/OtagoRegionalCo...
 4. https://www.linkedin.com/authwall?trk=bf...
 5. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC77y56i...
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
 - Download a zip file of all correspondence (note: this contains the same information already available above).
 

