Land transport funding
The Government has published its long term policy statement on land transport funding. This includes the range of future likely expenditure.
Now it is worth recalling that the land transport fund is funded pretty much 100% by motorists through petrol tax and road user charges. Motorists fund not just the roads for themselves, but also a significant proportion of public transport and cycle and walking ways. That’s fine, as there are benefits to motorists in having fewer people driving – but’s remember that they are the funders. So what the expenditure ranges for the next three years. I’m going to take the midpoints of the ranges
- Improve state highways $3.75 billion
- Maintain state highways $1.58 billion
- Maintain local roads $1.49 billion
- Public transport $1.03 billion
- Road policing $915 million
- Improve local roads $593 million
- Regional improvements $225 million
- Investment management $171 million
- Road safety promotion $103 million
- Walking/Cycling $75 million
There’s also an additional $220 million for Auckland transport, which is being treated as a loan.
I’ve often said that you need spending on both roads and public transport. The problem is some extremists who are against any new roads anywhere because basically they hate cars.
The good thing with this level of transparency, is that political parties promising to spend more on public transport, have to now point to where they will spend less (or say they will increase petrol tax). Would Labour and the Greens reduce maintenance for state highways or local roads to pay for more trains? Hopefully they will put out detailed policies showing how they would allocate the funds available, so people can judge on which mix they most agree with.