Surprised at hearing news that the managers of New Zealand’s only toll road, the Silverdale to Puhoi Highway, are only now beginning to chase up non-paying drivers?
No wonder, says Liberty Scott, because the toll road was a political creation—and only “a state body can so egregiously ignore collecting money for the use of a service, when the incentives are so badly wrong.”
He tells a fascinating story of a road that cost nearly five times more than it was supposed to, in addition to a tolls collection department set up expressly to cost more to run than it was ever going to collect.
Read it and weep: Northern Gateway toll road – a story of politics over reason.
Worth adding there IS another toll road. Route K in Tauranga, owned by Tauranga City Council, it's another winner. Having been turned down by central government for funding (because it wasn't worth building), the Council borrowed $45 million to build it, and levied a toll on it to pay it back. Today the debt is $60 million because it only has half the traffic necessary for it to make money. It's now looking for central government to take it over, but it's saying no.
ReplyDeletehttp://roadpricing.blogspot.com/2010/12/tauranga-new-zealands-toll-road-capital.html