Transit national toll plan finds few friends at ARC

Transit New Zealand's push for a "seamless" national road tolling system is under challenge from the Auckland Regional Council because of fears that a "Think Big" scheme would not work.

The highways agency is about to prepare a final report on a consultation document before asking Land Transport New Zealand for between $15 million and $60 million to develop a single back-office system for managing potential tolling schemes throughout the country.

It needs to have the system running in three years, ready to start collecting tolls on the long-awaited $320 million motorway extension to Puhoi. Construction work started there this week.

Transit's preference is for a free-flow nationally integrated system in which vehicles are detected as they pass through tolling points.

It says a key benefit would be to provide road users "with seamless road toll experiences" and economies of scale.

But the regional council's transport policy committee has endorsed a staff submission that said a fully electronic toll collection system needed many regular users to make it worthwhile.

Council transport director Peter Winder said in the submission that a predominance of irregular users would make a manual system more cost-effective.

He believed the toll system for the 7.5km Puhoi link should probably be different from the system on Auckland's urban network.

Committee chairman Joel Cayford said there was a danger of pushing ahead with a "Think Big" scheme that might not be suitable for more intricate ways of reducing congestion on Auckland roads, such as by charging motorists during peak hours only.

He said the Ministry of Transport was keeping its study of Auckland road pricing close to its chest so his committee had asked council staff for their own detailed research.

Rodney District Mayor John Law is meanwhile optimistic the Government will allow the Puhoi motorway to be tolled, even though it has delayed a decision for three months while ministry and Treasury officials "peer review" Transit's work on the proposal.

Some critics of the project claim a $20 million construction advance Transit obtained from Land Transport NZ to start work is merely to satisfy a deadline set by the Environment Court, and that the Government may be losing its nerve about tolls.

But Mr Law says he is satisfied the only reason for the delay is a need to get the methodology right, rather than any qualms over charging motorists to use the road.

"I am confident the tolling solution process will reach an acceptable solution," he said.

"Seeing heavy machinery working on the site is a tonic for the residents who have been so patient with the traffic travelling through local streets."

A Transit spokeswoman said it could not comment on the regional council's concerns before receiving its submission.