New Zealand toller not wedded to exclusive video tolling - could issue tags (FOLLOWUP)

New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) operating the new 7.5km (4.7 mile) Northern Gateway Toll Road north of Auckland say they aren't wedded to exclusive video tolling. They say, as we reported earlier - http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3928 -  they plan to open Jan 25 with all-video tolling. No transponders have been issued.

However they told us this week: "We may look at introducing tags (transponders) once the road is up and running."

NZTA officials tell us the mainline gantries are fitted with readers, all completely wired and connected to the necessary back office processing and software to allow transponders to be introduced into the system. It is an Australian style all-electronic toll system supplied by Kapsch's Swedish operation using front and rear cameras, near-IR illuminators, CEN-278 5.8GHz passive transponders and readers, video based vehicle detection and classification.

"We are simply not using the transponders at this time and are using only the image-based components of the system," they say in an email.

New Zealand license plates, they say are clear and relatively easily read by camera. In addition the new tollroad tends to have a high proportion of casual users for whom transponders are unsuited.

After the new pike has been in use a while they may decide to trial transponders and later issue them as an option, the official said, but no decision on this has been made.

CONTEXT: There is all-video tolling on the Central London Congestion Charge scheme in city streets which began in February 2003 and on a cordon toll in central Stockholm.

There had been an earlier trial of the Stockholm system Jan 2006 to end-July 2006 in which there was the more conventional all-electronic tolling mix of cameras and transponders, but IBM the system designers, recommended the all-video solution which went into effect August 2007. Again this is on city streets.

To our knowledge Northern Gateway Toll Road in New Zealand will be the first expressway-standard toll road in the world to open with all-video tolling.

BACKGROUND: Scott Wilson a New Zealand consultant now in London provides some extra background on the Northern Gateway Toll Road which he has followed through from the beginning.

Tunnels, Wilson says, weren’t part of the original plan.  The then highways authority Transit New Zealand (recently merged with the funding agency Land Transport New Zealand to form the New Zealand Transport Agency), decided that if people pay tolls they should expect a better quality route than one funded with taxes.

They improved the specifications ("spec") of the road to provide a better experience for motorists, by lessening grades and curvatures. But that would have put the road in a deeper wider cutting.

The use of tunnels rather than a cutting reduced the visibility of the road and disturbance of the natural landscape.

The project was originally to be funded from road taxes which in New Zealand comprise fuel taxes, a weight/distance charge for all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes (7720pd) and all diesel vehicles, and annual motor vehicle licensing fees. But transport strategy changed in favour of concentrating tax monies on major urban motorway improvements, so the Northern Gateway project could only proceed with toll financing assistance.

The tollroad has been around 50% funded by road taxes with the rest borrowed by the government to be repaid by tolls.   

Other toll projects being considered in New Zealand are:

-  Waterview Connection, the final link in a south western motorway in Auckland, of which two sections are currently being built funded by taxes - a $1.2b (NZ$1.9b) project

- Transmission Gully. a new northern entrance road to Wellington, the seat of government in the south of the Northern Island - $600m (NZ$1b)

These are likely to be funded by a mix of tolls and taxes since traffic volumes won't be sufficient to finance their full costs.

Wilson says the newly elected National Party led (conservative) government seems likely to advance both projects.

Tauranga Harbourlink, another road project was originally proposed for toll financing but a coalition partner in the government got tolls there nixed.

see http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/tollroad/

http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/tollroad/gfx/toll-collection.wmv for animated description of toll system

TOLLROADSnews 2009-01-13