KEY POINTS:
Transit NZ has yet to disclose how much it expects Aucklanders to pay in road tolls, amid fear these may push the bill for completing the western ring route toward $4 billion.
But it indicated last night it would make figures available next week, half-way through a two-month public consultation exercise, after refusing yesterday to provide these to a Waitakere City Council committee.
"We have only modelled a toll proposal in preliminary fashion," Transit chief executive Rick van Barneveld said in response to a challenge from city development committee member Derek Battersby to produce cost-benefit figures to justify using tolls to complete the 48km route between Manukau and Albany by 2015.
Mr Battersby said: "We needed to do that to consult with Aucklanders about their willingness to toll to bring the western ring route forward."
Mr van Barneveld said if Transit's board concluded in February that such willingness existed, the agency would firm up financial details of an electronic tolling scheme involving seven charging points along the route.
His advice to the committee ran contrary to assurances Transit gave the Herald that details of loan repayments for a scheme running for at least 35 years would be available this week.
Last night, a Transit spokeswoman said the agency was discussing figures with the Treasury and would try to make them available on Monday.
A preliminary traffic modelling report issued this week gave a snapshot of expected transactions in 2021, including a predicted annual revenue of $75 million, of which $20 million would go in administration costs.
Although the Herald was advised not to assume this would be a typical year, and that revenue would take some time to build to that level, neither could the agency rule out even higher figures in the future.
An average annual revenue of $75 million would work out at $2.6 billion over 35 years, pushing the potential price of completing the ring route to just under $4 billion, after counting $1.3 billion which the Government has promised from traditional funds.
Council for Infrastructure Development chief Stephen Selwood pointed to a 2004 economic report by the AA which estimated the economic benefit of speeding up completion of the ring route at $838 million a year.
"This vastly exceeds the administration and finance costs associated with debt-financing the projects through tolls," he said.
Mr van Barneveld acknowledged to the Waitakere councillors that the $140 million cost of installing tolling gantries and related infrastructure was "a very large sum" and likened borrowing money for road construction to raising a mortgage on a house.
Mr Battersby said he wanted to view all the financial documents so the council could "show them [the public] how stupid the whole process is".
Other councillors claimed Waitakere was being expected to shoulder a greater burden from tolls and this would inhibit the development of the Massey-Hobsonville corridor.
Warren Flaunty said young families would prefer to settle in North Shore City, where they would gain free access to the Northern Motorway.
Mr van Barneveld said Transit had done its best to ensure free alternative routes for all communities, while taking care to propose tolls which would be low enough to attract traffic with the promise of more reliable trip times. The agency proposes peak-time tolls ranging from 75c at Greenhithe and at Hobsonville, to $1.50 along Onehunga Bay, and to $7 for the full route.
Transit's model suggests 2 per cent of revenue would come from toll lanes along the Northwestern Motorway, 20 per cent along the Upper Waitemata Harbour and 46 per cent at Onehunga.
The model predicts a 5 per cent rise in morning peak speeds across the region's road network by 2021 after a tolled ring route is completed.
The numbers
* $3.925 billion
Total potential bill for completing ring route from combination of tolls and traditional Government funding through fuel taxes and consolidated account
* $838 million
The estimated annual economic benefit of accelerating completion of the ring route
