AT has plans on congestion charging
Auckland Transport wants to be ready to start work on a congestion charging system once enabling legislation passes, likely later this year or early next.
The council-owned transport agency has started advertising on the government electronic tender service (Gets) website for a consultant or consortium to update previous work on congestion charging — although Auckland Transport (AT), like Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, prefers the term time of use charging — to design a preferred scheme and produce a business case for decisionmakers to approve.
Congestion charging, already in place in cities like Singapore and Stockholm, involves charging motorists for entering a specified cordon or corridor,while pricing encourages people to use alternative forms of transport, like buses or trains, or defer discretionary trips to off-peak times.
Traffic flows
According to previous research, congestion is estimated to cost Auckland between $0.9 billion and $1.3b annually in lost productivity and other factors.
Several previous studies, including a 2020 report led by the Ministry of Transport called The Congestion Question (TCQ), have recommended charging be introduced in Auckland.
The TCQ report, which suggested the city could achieve traffic flows similar to school holiday periods, recommended introducing a charging cordon in the central city to coincide with the opening of the Rail Link (CRL), now slated for 2026.
It said this could be extended to cover other congested corridors, with indicative charges set at $1.50 for shoulder periods and $3.50 for peak times.
Motorists would be charged using automatic number plate recognition cameras.
Politicians from across the political spectrum have expressed support for congestion charging. But a number have also raised concerns around equity, particularly the impact on people living in areas poorly served by alternative transport options.
Brown, the Auckland mayor, is an advocate.
He previously told BusinessDesk he wanted AT to move much faster on time-of-use charging.
“It’s a demand management thing, and it saves money because what happens is you don’t have to build new motorways,” he said last year.
“Our roads are empty for 20 hours a day, and they’re jammed for four.”
Need for speed
The tender documents issued by AT noted the extensive nature of the work undertaken on congestion charging to date and the need for the successful contractor to work at pace.
In an interview with BusinessDesk, AT executive programme director Mark Lambert said the reason the agency was going to market before enabling legislation was in place was so it could move quickly once the law was introduced.
He said it also wanted the opportunity to provide feedback on the bill.
Lambert said the contract was divided into two stages.
In the first stage, he said the contractor would reconfirm assumptions in previous work like the TQC report, produce updated data and examine the benefits of a congestion charging scheme. According to the tender documents, public consultation could occur as early as the third quarter of this year, however Lambert said this was conditional on progress with the legislation.
Stage two would involve the contractor identifying a preferred option and designing a functional charging scheme that was ready for procurement.
Alongside the council, AT wanted to be in a position to approve a scheme by March 2025. This allowed for a year to procure, test and commission a system ahead of the opening of the CRL, although a supporting document uploaded with the tender suggested it might be best to wait a few months post-opening before starting to charge.
AT wanted the successful bidder to start work on the contract in June.
Legislation coming, but when?
The previous Government drafted legislation to allow local authorities to introduce congestion charging, however it was never introduced to Parliament.
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is supportive, and his draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport, released in March, mentioned the possibility of using time-of-use charging in the main cities to manage road network demand.
In response to questions from BusinessDesk, he said the Government was committed to introducing a time-of-use charging framework to help people and freight get where they wanted to go quickly and safely.
“I expect legislation to enable timeof-use charging will be introduced this year,” Brown said.