Efficiency the key to transport cash formula

By COLIN JAMES

Value for money and efficiency will be more prominent in the final version of the Government's land transport strategy, to be issued when the Land Transport Management Bill is tabled next month.

Transport Minister Paul Swain hopes to publish both in the next three-week parliamentary sitting, which starts on November 5.

The bill will add "congestion" as a factor in the formula for road funding priorities, he said.

The strategy is intended to guide submitters in their comments on the bill. Swain wants the bill through the House by July 1 next year.

Consultations on the bill have involved the Greens and United Future in parallel. This is a departure from the hierarchy adopted since the election of consulting United Future first.

That is because the Government now attaches some urgency to getting the bill into law and because the Greens were closely involved in development of the draft strategy, partly in return for their support for the rise in petrol tax.

The Greens oppose building more roads (co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons has a bill in the House to that effect) and extracted concessions in the draft strategy on alternative modes of transport, including a promise of a walking and cycling strategy.

Now Swain, not by nature a greenie, talks of a "holistic approach" to land transport.

There must be a "multi-modal approach", a balance between road and rail (and barging), better access to public transport and a place for walking and cycling.

Rail, he said was a "key aspect. It is an integral part of the land transport management system". The Government already owns the Auckland suburban system and is considering buying the remainder of the rail track from Tranz Rail.

The new strategy will introduce a long-term planning process, requiring that 10-year regional land transport plans be drawn up by regional land transport committees based on existing regional council areas.

Regional economic development will be a factor in funding priorities. And regions may be involved in rail infrastructure ownership.

The bill is eagerly awaited by local councils, who want permission to build toll roads. Now a new bill is needed for each toll road or bridge. The bill will propose that permission is given by Order-in-Council, which in effect means by the minister.

It will also clear the way for private-public partnerships for new roads. Swain favours the DBFO formula, under which the private partner designs, builds, funds or part-funds and operates the road for about 30 years, rather than the more constrictive BOOTS formula, under which the private partner acts as a sort of contractor to build a road to Government design, operates it according to a Government pricing formula and then transfers it to public ownership.

The bill is silent on tolling technology, which is rapidly changing. But it is likely to impose conditions, such as assurance of an alternative route.

* ColinJames@synapsis.co.nz