Ministry thinks Auckland drivers may be persuaded to pay

Ministry of Transport officials believe most Aucklanders may be persuaded to pay to drive on congested roads - as long as serious improvements to public transport come first.

Despite a deluge of letters to the Herald opposing five possible pricing options examined in a $2.3 million ministry study, principal adviser Chris Money said yesterday that it appeared "well under" 20 per cent of submissions had rejected these out of hand.

Mr Money said about 980 submissions were received before a deadline of last Friday, and the ministry would evaluate them before making a recommendation to ministers on whether enabling legislation for some sort of pricing scheme should be introduced to Parliament.

The submissions were supplied by a good cross-section of individuals and organisations, he said.

He acknowledged that only a minority had given unqualified support to the driver-pays idea, leaving the bulk of people with reservations, but he believed many of these could be satisfied by heavy investments in public transport and other "mitigation" measures.

"What we are looking at is more or less universal acknowledgment that congestion is a significant problem in Auckland and something has to be done about it," Mr Money said.

Possible mitigation spending of up to $631 million on measures such as more bus lanes and cross-town public transport services was fed into the ministry's five options, making two of them uneconomical.

An option involving throwing a single-charge cordon around the whole Auckland isthmus and another using distance-based tolling on congested motorways are likely to be rejected, given a ministerial directive that any scheme must be able to cover mitigation costs.

That leaves the possibility of schemes involving two cordons, each of which may cost $3 to cross in the morning peak time, a $5 area-charging option covering trips within an almost 40sq km sector of central Auckland, or a $10 daily parking levy in central business districts.

Although the levy would be the best revenue-earner, officials believe it would do little to tackle congestion, and cabinet papers have disclosed that ministers privately preferred the area-charging scheme before being persuaded to reserve judgment.

The papers also show that proposals for enabling legislation are expected to be considered by the Cabinet in July, ready for introduction to Parliament by August.

Mr Money said legislation would be required to allow any charges to be raised from existing roads, and could be introduced to Parliament ahead of a decision on whether a particular scheme should be investigated further, with appropriate refinements.

Existing legislation allows Transport Minister Annette King to approve tolls only for new roads where there are alternative free routes nearby and where there is strong local support.

Although most submissions on the road-pricing options were from Aucklanders, the Northland Regional Council has raised a strong objection to its citizens possibly having to pay a toll to travel to other parts of New Zealand.

"Our region is unique in New Zealand in that Auckland effectively cuts it off from the rest of the country," said council chairman Mark Farnsworth.

"State highways must remain a 'free zone'. Charge any tolls at city exit points, not for using the highway."

Under both cordon options, all traffic reaching Auckland across the harbour bridge would be charged $6, but only between 6am and 10am on weekdays. Through-traffic would also be caught by an area-charging scheme and by the distance-based motorway tolling system.