Article: Tolls and taxes on roads agenda

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Tolls and taxes on roads agenda

Tolls and taxes on roads agenda

    * David Rood
    * August 25, 2008

A CONGESTION tax and tolls on public roads are part of an official transport review handed to the State Government.

VicRoads and the Department of Infrastructure said in interviews for a review of Victoria's transport legislation that "road congestion pricing" was an emerging issue.

"Over time there may be further private toll roads," the report found. "There may be decisions to introduce pricing for public roads and/or to restructure tolls for the current private roads."

The review, obtained by the Coalition under freedom-of-information legislation, identified such issues as "the extension of tolling to public roads" as a way to reduce congestion on Melbourne's roads.

Although private roads such as CityLink and EastLink have tolls, the State Government has long opposed them on existing public roads.

But Sir Rod Eddington's $18 billion plan to link Melbourne's eastern and western suburbs by an 18-kilometre road tunnel and a 17-kilometre rail tunnel also suggests tolls on roads that are now toll-free, as well as a London-style congestion tax. At the time of the Eddington report's release in April, Premier John Brumby said he was not "ruling anything in, nor ruling anything out" among Sir Rod's 20 key proposals.

Shadow transport spokesman Terry Mulder seized on the 2006 report, Transport Policy & Legislation Review by the consulting firm Farrier Swier, saying the Government appeared to be considering tolls for existing roads.

"The Government has a long history of diving into motorists pockets," Mr Mulder said.

A Government spokeswoman said yesterday that while departments continued to examine ways to manage roads, Government policy opposed tolls on existing roads and did not support a London-style congestion tax.

The report also questioned the clarity of the role played by VicRoads and the Department of Infrastructure in advising the Government. The Department of Infrastructure became the Department of Transport in April this year.

In 2005, the then Bracks government announced a congestion tax on long-stay car parking spaces in central Melbourne, arguing the levy aimed to "ease congestion".

RACV spokesman Brian Negus said his organisation believed a congestion tax was inappropriate. "A congestion tax should only be considered in the longer term with the total restructuring of all taxes applying to motoring," he said.

The Public Transport Users Association said it would support tolls on existing roads if they were used to fund improvements in public transport.

Jackie Fristacky, who chairs a local government body, the Metropolitan Transport Forum, said it would be "crazy" to toll public roads, as it would be just another penalty on motorists from growth suburbs who had no choice but to drive because of inadequate investment in public transport