Inevitably the question comes up when we are halfway down the road: “Have you paid the toll?”.
We don’t go often enough to warrant an account, and the thought of a penalty doesn’t pass the value-for-money test.
Some rational thinking along the way raises a few other questions like: “Isn’t this new road suitable for a higher speed limit?” or “How come the highway to Pūhoi is tolled and the new road is not?” and ”Why are we in Northland being tolled when the rest of the country have their new roads for free? All valid questions.
The most recent newsletter from NZTA last week comments that: “NZTA is in the early stages of assessing the Northland corridor for tolling”.
So, let’s be part of that conversation.
With the Government’s announcement of 15 new Roads of National Significance, three of which are in Northland, has come the additional comment that tolling these new roads is very much on the table.
The most recent NZTA newsletter indicates that assessment is under way suggesting that a user-pays benefit, could be sufficient to justify asking users to pay. Ultimately we all pay, whether it is through taxes, fuel charges, rates or toll charges. The latter indicates that the user benefits are quantifiable and significant enough, that drivers will pay for those extra benefits.
The key thing here though, is that the issue is being raised before the projects get physically under way, rather than when the new road is practically completed. The current uproar in the Tararua-Manawatū region about NZTA’s current proposal to toll Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway between Woodville and Ashurst, is completely understandable.
This new highway is to replace the old Manawatū Gorge Rd on State Highway 3 which was closed in 2017, after a number of severe slips. Drivers between the Eastern and Western Lower North Island have had to use two local roads, Pahiatua Track and Saddle Rd for vehicle access. The new highway is a four-lane, divided, 11.5km road with a toll proposal of $4.30 for light vehicles and $8.60 for heavy vehicles.
Part of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 enables tolls to be levied on new roads to help fund their construction, maintenance or operation. It requires a feasible, free, alternative route to be available to road users, meaning that new toll roads must compete with existing roads for traffic.
I suppose the Saddle Rd and Pahiatua Track could be considered alternatives, but they are local roads, owned and maintained by local authorities, which are not in the same category as a State Highway replacement.
Lower North Island drivers deserve to have their new road for free, bearing in mind the significant costly inconvenience of the Manawatū Gorge closure.
This begs the question about tolling all these new Roads of National Significance and our need to have an intelligent conversation about the pros and cons of that.
To this end, Te Waihanga, The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, has recently published an excellent report called: “Buying Time, Toll Roads, Congestion Charges and Transport Investment” which highlights many of the issues.
Some pundits suggest that the toll on the three existing toll roads in New Zealand is far too cheap with economists indicating that the $2.60 for the Northern Gateway makes it one of the cheapest tolls in the western world.
It should be realistically closer to $5, the price of a cup of coffee, to make any real contribution to our roading funding.
Our most famous toll road was the Auckland Harbour Bridge. This opened in 1959 with a toll of two and sixpence – which is around $7 in today’s dollars. The bridge was fully paid off in 1984, 25 years later, and tolling ceased.
Had tolling continued, a current second harbour crossing would likely be largely self-funded. Oh, the foresight of our forebears.
Every dollar collected in tolls cost 32c to administer. Administration is more of a fixed cost, so a higher toll would make a proportionately greater contribution to roading revenue. But the question of fairness and equity is a vexed one. If all the new Roads of National Significance in Northland were tolled, while the rest of the country has their new roads for nothing, then that is not equitable.
We need to have an intelligent, dispassionate conversation about how road tolls can make a realistic contribution to our parlous roading budget.
