Road tolling is essential to delivering New Zealand’s critical transport infrastructure.
That’s the message from the country’s national road freight bodies in response to new road tolling policies announced by Transport Minister Simeon Brown on Friday.
Transporting NZ chief executive Dom Kalasih acknowledges the reforms will be controversial but a change is needed as the current transport funding model is “approaching a crisis point”.
The new legislation will enable NZTA to raise more roading revenue, including enabling tolling of existing roads that gain capacity or are extended by new projects, linking toll prices to inflation, and requiring heavy vehicles to use tolled roads where they are designed to divert traffic from built-up areas.
“Nobody enjoys stumping up for road tolls, particularly when motorists are already contributing to road construction and maintenance through Fuel Excise Duty or Road User Charges,” Kalasih says.
“This is particularly the case for road freight companies, who pay the greatest proportion of their public sector costs of any vehicle type.
“Despite understandable hesitation, users warm to tolling once they experience the convenience, safety and efficiency the roads offer. A recent Post/Freshwater poll showed that motorists who regularly used toll roads were more likely to prefer highways be funded by private companies who toll road users, compared to road users who didn’t use them.
“NZTA’s forecasting shows a growing revenue deficit, reaching $6b per year by 2030.
“The current revenue system won’t deliver the safe, efficient transport system the country needs – including the Roads of National Significance programme,” Kalasih says.
Kalasih says that Transporting New Zealand will work through the details of the proposed changes with its road freight members, particularly those impacting heavy vehicles, with a focus on limiting cost increases for business and consumers.
New toll roads
Transporting NZ says that the Government has made the right decision in refusing to toll the Manawatū Tararua Highway.
“Tolling proposals should be well-signalled, offer viable alternative routes, and be supported by a strong business case. Manawatū Tararua Highway didn’t meet any of these criteria, and we’re pleased the Government won’t proceed with tolling,” Kalasih says.
Transporting NZ submitted in support of two tolling proposals that the Government has approved: Ōtaki to North of Levin Highway and Takitimu North Link.
Kalasih says when consultation was undertaken nearly two years ago on Penlink, “we were hesitant”.
“At that stage the revenue collected was not tightly linked to the new road, and we were concerned that the revenue could be spent on new cycleways and rail rather than essential road construction.
“Provided the Coalition Government can address these concerns, we’re much happier with tolling proceeding.”
Meanwhile, the National Road Carriers Association (NRC) says the road tolling reforms should lift the speed of delivery and the quality of the transport network.
“It is an unfortunate reality that our roading network is well below the standard expected to deliver safe, efficient, and productive movement of freight and that there is a significant shortfall in the revenue required to address this issue,” NRC chief executive Justin Tighe-Umbers says.
NRC says it’s comfortable with heavy vehicles being required to use toll roads as a means of diverting traffic from unsuitable areas if the toll roads result in efficiency gains and the need to pass on the additional cost is reduced.
“We are playing catch up on both new roads and maintaining our existing ones, at the same time as having declining roading revenue returns from fuel duties,” Tighe-Umbers says.
“This obviously can’t go on so new ways of funding our future roads are needed, and that includes tools such as tolling, time of use and value capture.
“If New Zealanders want first world roads, then collectively, we need to be prepared to pay for them. Consideration does need to be given to how to appropriately charge freight to create better freight efficiencies and as long as the efficiencies exist, we believe transport operators and their customers will be prepared to pay for that.
“We also support the changes to the tolling infrastructure being undertaken by NZTA and will be wanting to see the cost of administering the system reduced,” Tighe-Umbers adds.
