Developing multimodal transport and improving road safety are among the government’s top priorities, transport minister Phil Twyford says.
Twyford made his second appearance at the Road Transport Forum’s annual conference recently held in Dunedin.
He first spoke at the forum’s 2017 event in Hamilton, having been transport minister for just two days.
It was there he first spoke of the government’s commitment to invest more in multimodal forms of transport such as more spending on public rail and bus networks.
Now 11 months into the job, Twyford hammered home the same message.
“Rebalancing investment in a modern, efficient, multimodal transport system is long overdue,” he says.
Twyford acknowledged the 3.5 cents per litre increase in fuel excise duty which kicks in on September 30, followed by a further seven cents over the next two years and an equivalent amount for road user charges
“No one enjoys paying more at the pump. However, [the transport industry] knows better than most that the billions that are needed for investment in a modern transport system have to be paid for,” Twyford says.
He praised the freight industry and the critical role it plays in the economy as both a source of employment and regional economic development.
“If we are to unlock this growth and prosperity we need a modern multimodal transport system across the entire country,” he says.
Improving safety and freight connections to ports, airports, and distribution centres are a priority.
Improving local and regional roads is another focus, he says.
Twyford also acknowledged cross-subsidisation criticism surrounding funding of rail through the National Land Transport Programme and says a study on the future of rail is due later this year.
However, coastal shipping and rail “have a role to play”, Twyford says.
“These modes have the potential to lift some of the pressures off roads that makes economic sense and benefits the freight sector,” he says.
Twyford says the big changes now facing the transport industry are electrification of vehicles, GPS and satellite pricing systems and technological innovations in forms of mobility and urban intensification.
Twyford says a GPS pricing system is “only a matter of years away”.
He says the government does not intend to “surrender” itself to technology and a strong debate on how it’s applied is still necessary.
“It’s my view we shouldn’t think of technology as some kind of white knight that’s going to come along and solve all our problems … but instead decide what kind of economy and what kind of communities we want to live in and then do our best to harness those new technologies for the kind of future we want,” Twyford says.
