Row looms over road-toll plans

Controversy is looming over whether motorists should pay to use existing Auckland roads, as the Government prepares to make announcements this week on a long-awaited report.

Although the Ministry of Transport's 350-page document is understood to be light on clear directions, Auckland political leaders expect it to generate heat simply by flagging the possibility of road charges.

The Government is keeping options close to its chest and has yet to consult key groups such as the Automobile Association, but an earlier ministry paper warning of a need to find extra transport funding sources points to the prospect of a trial road-charges scheme for Auckland.

Consulting firm Deloitte, which shepherded a "congestion-charging" scheme into central London three years ago and headed a study for the Auckland report, held a seminar last week for local transport officials ahead of the document's release this Friday.

Its "global" road-pricing leader, London-based Ian Simpson, told the Herald after addressing the seminar that transport planners were starting to focus on practicalities rather than treating the subject merely as of academic interest.

But he pointed to a need for political leaders to gain public support for any such scheme, and acknowledged a strong possibility that a road-pricing trial launched in Stockholm in January may fail to clinch a referendum on the subject in September.

Although the trial has already seen a 25 per cent reduction in traffic in central Stockholm and faster times for new buses carrying former car drivers, Swedish academics point to anger among many citizens over a broken election promise not to introduce road tolls.

Mr Simpson says tolls refer to charges to repay the cost of new roads, rather than gaining revenue from existing networks.

"What we are shifting to is talking about charging for roads that have historically been free to the user, so it's a shift in mindset," he said.

But he said it should not be seen as paying twice for the same infrastructure, as portrayed by the Automobile Association.

"You are not paying for road use to recover the cost of the road. You are paying to reflect the congestion that is being placed on the land and reflecting the economic value that can be extracted from that network," he said.

By encouraging people to leave their cars at home at peak times and catch buses or trains paid for partially by congestion charges, transport agencies could reduce pressure to build "hugely expensive" new roads for which cities such as Auckland were running out of room.

Mr Simpson said a big drawback in relying on fuel taxes was that these were not linked to how people used roads "so you're paying the same duty regardless of the environmental or economic impact you are having".

"If you're clogging up the road you're causing much more economic and environmental impact than if you are on a freely-running road."

Deloitte New Zealand executive Paul Callow said the $120 million cost of introducing the Swedish scheme was far less than the $500 million or so London project, which has led to 30 per cent less congestion, because central Stockholm had far fewer entry points.

Surrounded largely by water, it had "striking similarities" to Auckland, where traffic chaos in recent weeks caused by roadworks on the Mangere Bridge and in Mt Roskill suggested parts of the roading network were approaching capacity at key times.

"It is becoming fragile to those kinds of disruption, suggesting congestion pricing has something to offer Auckland," Mr Callow said.

Auckland City mayor Dick Hubbard has support from his Waitakere and Manukau counterparts in a bid for the region to raise its own transport funds from road-pricing, but not everyone agrees.

Regional Council chairman Mike Lee said yesterday: "I don't think it is politically feasible when you think of the enormous amount of time and effort of setting up a whole superstructure...This is a money-spinner for private interests - you will be throwing money at call-centres, computer systems and all sorts of peripheral things." 

 
Traffic fix?

London
* Cost: $500 million.
* Cut traffic by 17-18 per cent

Stockholm
* Cost: $120 million.
* Cut traffic by 20-25 per cent