Coquihalla Highway BC tolls ended suddenly by premier - $52m/yr dropped

Tolls on the Coquihalla Highway, the only operating tollroad in British Columbia, Canada were suddenly ended by the premier Gordon Campbell at 1pm (13:00) Sept 26 and demolition of the single mainline plaza is already under way as we write. Campbell who is expected to lead his Liberal Party (a center right or conservative party in US terminology) to a general election in May 2009 clearly staged the event for maximum political effect.

Just hours before the last tolls were collected he told the annual convention of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities: "The tolls are gone for good on the Coquihalla."

The convention was being held in Penticton a town close by the tollroad. The mayors and other local officials gave the premier a standing ovation, according to local reports.

The media, local officials and the Ministry of Transport were caught by surprise. Under the parliamentary system the premier derives his position from majority support in the legislature so legislative endorsement is usually a mere formality.

The end of tolls on the Coquihalla Highway will cost the provincial government $52m (C$57m @ C$=92c) a year. Campbell said nothing about how this revenue will be replaced.

Jeff Knight, a spokesman at the British Columbia Ministry of Transport which operated the toll plaza told us the toll revenues didn't go to the ministry but went into the province's general fund. Decisions on tolls were a matter for the Cabinet and the annual provincial budget: "We just ran the toll collection."

Reasoning presented for abolishing tolls was that the toll revenues since the road opened in 1986 had "paid for" the $780m (C$848m) the tolled segment of the road had initially cost. Transport minister Kevin Falcon said in a  statement: "The tolls served their purpose, and paid for a highway that literally opened up BC’s Interior. Removing the toll booths will allow drivers to maintain a normal pattern of driving along this stretch of highway.”

$777m ($845m) had been collected in total tolls over the 22 years tolls were collected.

Change of policy

There had been no mention previously of abolishing tolls when the original dollar sum was "paid for."

The Vancouver Sun says that in 2006 when last questioned about the future of tolls on the Coquihalla transport minister Falcon said there was "no end in sight for tolls."

In 2003 Campbell began a privatization of the road and procurement of a toll concession was begun.

However local protests over several months got the government to cancel the procurement and the road remained in government hands.

In a statement announcing the beginning of demolition of the toll plaza premier Campbell is quoted:
"Removing the tolls on the Coquihalla Highway puts money back in the pockets of the commuters, tourists and truck drivers who regularly drive this highway. This will translate into savings of hundreds of dollars each year for the average regular user, and thousands of dollars for the truck drivers who rely on this important transportation route."

BACKGROUND: The Coquihalla Highway (BC5) in the Cascade mountains was built as a superior expressway standard road between Hope and Kamloops allowing a bypass of and shortcut over a long stretch of the Trans Canada Highway (TCH) or national route 1, mostly a 2-lane rural surface arterial. 

The full Coquihalla Highway is in total 306km (170 miles) long of mostly 2+2 lanes but with climbing lanes and on some stretches 3 lanes each direction. Knight of the transport ministry says the segment Hope to Kamloops of about 186km (116 miles) offers "very substantial time savings" over the parallel stretch of the Trans Canada Highway, as well as being safer and less stressful to drive.

Both highways go through an area of the Cascades with spectacular scenery nut the Coquihalla is the higher route. It is a high snowfall area and in the winter the toll road is regularly closed for a week or more in order to clear snow.

The highway was originally built with government money raised to support Expo 86,a big world's fair in Vancouver in 1986. Only the tolled section Hope to Merritt was finished in time for the Expo, but the next section to Kanloops - untolled - was opened in 1987.

Tolls were collected at one 13-lane mainline toll plaza near the high point of the highway at elevation 1244m (4080ft) about midway between Hope and Merritt, a 113km (70 mile) stretch. There are no sizable settlements in this stretch, just camping and hiking spots, so the toll plaza picked up mostly long distance traffic.

Tolls were $9 (C$10) for cars, $46 (C$50) for tractor trailers.

Toll collection was entirely manual with toll lanes controlled by gates.

In the last financial year ending March 2008 the road had 3.4m vehicles (9.3k/day), of which 2.7m (7.4k/day) were passenger cars and 0.7m (2k/day) trucks. Tolls collected were C$57m or $52.4m.

Two new toll projects sponsored under Campbell

British Columbia is using tolls to finance two new bridges in the Vancouver area:

-  the Golden Ears Bridge scheduled to open in 2009 east of Vancouver

see http://www.goldenearsbridge.ca

- the twinned Port Mann Bridge over the Fraser River, part of the $3b Gateway Project southeast of Vancouver and due to begin tolling in 2013

see http://www.gatewayprogram.bc.ca/

Premier Campbell would be 100

Campbell, 60, declared last week that the Port Mann Bridge tolls would be discontinued after 35 years, a rather presumptuous statement since it seems unlikely he will be around to implement that de-toll. The year would be 2048 and Campbell would be 100 years old.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-10-03