Alternatives To Roading Regulations A Green Sham
June 5th, 2008
Regional Councils up and down the country are quickly coming to the conclusion the Govt’s apparent keenness to promote better integration of road and rail services is little more than greenwash. The Otago Regional Land Transport Strategy is typical of many such plans. It seeks to take some of the pressure off the region’s roading network by promoting greater use of rail transport for freight movement. However, the strategy is unlikely to meet its objectives as such regional policy initiatives effectively fall into a black hole of ineffective legislation to promote alternatives to using road transport.
Anti-Infrastructure. Otago’s planners are scathing of the current situation saying the restrictions on gaining funding for alternatives to roading are so restrictive there is in effective no point in applying for funding for infrastructure to allow rail to carry more freight such as intermodal freight terminals or new sidings to serve industries. In fact under current legislation no local authority can actually apply for funds to build physical infrastructure. Furthermore, projects will only be approved if they can prove to be financially self sustaining within three years. This is clearly ludicrous. How many roading projects are required to prove financial viability at all, let alone generate a return on the total investment within three years of construction?
Change Required. It is hard to understand why a Govt which claims to want to promote rail transport and better modal integration sits back and leaves such useless legislation on the statute books. If it really wants to promote greater mode integration, the existing short sighted regulation needs to be scrapped and replaced with a simpler funding mechanism. This should allow Local Authorities to access funding to build infrastructure and also put a financial weighting on the social and environmental benefits of getting freight off the roading network.
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