ARC team outvoted on travel options

Auckland's regional and city councils are at loggerheads over controversial Government options for pricing people out of their cars and into public transport.

Representatives of Auckland's four cities, backed by appointees from various transport interest groups, outvoted regional councillors yesterday in urging the Government to press ahead with enabling legislation for some form of road-charging or parking levy scheme.

All four regional councillors at a meeting of the broad-based Regional Land Transport Committee opposed any further consideration of road-pricing until Aucklanders have a viable public transport alternative to commuting by car.

They were outvoted 10-6 after impassioned pleas by Auckland and North Shore City councillors, supported by others from Waitakere and Manukau, not to ignore any such tool for tackling the region's transport woes.

"Auckland is in crisis - we have got to bite the bullet," said Auckland City transport committee chairman Richard Simpson.

North Shore councillor Chris Darby, whose constituents may face a $6 fee for morning crossings of the harbour bridge, said Auckland was in a big transport "hole" after decades of inaction and risked digging itself even deeper without seeking a sustainable way out.

"Road-pricing is unpalatable in many ways, but to curtail investigations now would be a really backward step," he said.

But the regional committee added strong conditions to a draft submission to the Ministry of Transport, including an insistence that a viable public transport network be in place before road charges were actually introduced.

It also demanded that all proceeds be channelled into Auckland land transport and the mitigation of social and other impacts of any pricing scheme, and that the potential effect of rising oil prices on road congestion be assessed.

Regional council strategic policy committee chairman Paul Walbran said road charges were good in theory, but a ministry study was flawed in proposing a "tax disincentive" to coax people into public transport services which were a long way off being delivered.

Noting that Auckland faced a $700 million public transport investment deficit over the next 10 years, he said valuable funds needed to build transport infrastructure would be lost paying for toll collection systems.

Council chairman Mike Lee said Auckland had a hard challenge but a real opportunity to work with the Government on bridging the funding gap, but risked being diverted into a "soft" funding option by continuing to explore road-charging.

The Government study, for which submissions close next week, assessed four potential road-charging schemes with potential maximum daily fees of $5 or $6 to drive in certain areas during the 6am-to-10am traffic peak, or a central districts' parking levy of $10.