Congestion charging likely for Wellington as politicians in rare unity

Monday, 26 August 2024

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Wellington’s great political rift has found common ground – congestion charging is coming to the capital and, with it, another cost for the ballooning list.

Exact details are yet to be ironed out, but Transport Minister Simeon Brown, Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter and Wellington Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Arcus are now all essentially on the same page.

While congestion charging is new for New Zealand it has long been used overseas and amounts to a charge paid to drive into the inner city at peak times. In London it is £15 ($31 NZD) daily and it is 135 kroner ($21NZD) in Stockholm. It is used to reduce congestion and get more people using public transport.

Work on a concrete plan for Wellington is under way, but money will also be funnelled into public transport.

While the cost to drivers is far from decided it comes in a city struggling amid years of hefty rates rises, while facing masses of public service job cuts, and spiralling living costs, including insurance.

Whanau, who on Sunday came out swinging against the National-led government on other issues, said the Government permitting congestion charging was “a bold move” that she backed for Wellington – which came after only Auckland for the country’s worst peak hour congestion.

“I want to grab this opportunity for Wellington and am committed to working with our regional council to develop a proposal for congestion charging,” she said.

The council was already formulating a “fully integrated transport plan” for Wellington and she would ask that congestion charging be included in that.

“By raising revenue through congestion charging we can invest in transport without having to put more and more pressure on your rates,” she said.

Ponter, whose council has in the past clashed with the city council over bikes taking priority over buses, confirmed he and Whanau were in agreement on Wellington getting a congestion charge, with money made going towards better public transport.

This could mean new trains, more services, more routes being opened, and possible mass rapid transit, but it would also be a “political hot potato to some extent” as it would mean another charge on people, he said.

He expected Auckland would adopt a congestion charge with Wellington following and learning from mistakes. A solution to avoid charging people passing though the city, rather than stopping in it, would be needed but licence plate reading technology would make that doable, Ponter said.

Brown this month promised to introduce law changes in 2024 allowing councils to introduce congestion charging and told a Wellington Chamber of Commerce audience last week the charge could not be a “revenue-raising tool” and had to go towards “improving the efficiency of the network”.

Money made, above set up costs, had to align with the Government’s June Policy Statement on Land Transport. That policy is notable for opposing spending on cycleways, bus ways and raised pedestrian crossings, but does allow for money to go to public transport.

Arcus, from the Chamber of Commerce, backed congestion charges, which were “ubiquitous around the world, sustainable and will make people think about their journeys and the modes they take”.

But Wellington’s “gaping hole”, which needed fixing, was reliable and efficient public transport, he said.