[ad_1]
Toll report: cars pass a toll station heading towards Oslo on the E6 in Alnabru. A selection has examined the future income base in toll networks. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix
Toll revenues in Trondheim, Bergen, Nord-Jæren and Oslo will fall 23 percent by 2030, according to a committee, which proposes to eliminate the benefits of electric cars.
On Monday, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Knut Arild Hareide, received a report on future revenues in the toll networks from a committee of experts appointed by the government last year.
The committee proposes to eliminate the benefits of the electric car in the toll. The main reason for the drop in toll revenue is exemptions and discounts on electric car tolls, and that the share of electric cars is constantly increasing.
Left unchanged, future toll revenue will drop significantly.
If toll revenues are maintained at the current level, while the benefits of the electric car are maintained, the rates for gasoline and diesel vehicles should almost double by 2030, the report notes.
WILL RIP THE PROFITS OF THE ELECTRIC CAR: A Tesla passes a toll booth towards Oslo on the E6 in Alnabru Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix
With more and more electric cars on Norwegian roads, toll booth revenue can be reduced by 23 percent by 2030, states the press release from the Ministry of Transport.
– We still have many tasks to solve and we must ensure an urban development that respects the environment. So we need a sustainable toll system and we should look for alternative solutions, such as road pricing, says Transport Minister Knut Arild Hareide in the press release.
In today’s report to the Minister for Transport and Communications, annual revenue from tolls in Trondheim, Bergen, Nord-Jæren and Oslo is estimated to decline by an average of 23 percent, equivalent to NOK 1.4 billion, to 2030. At the same time, tolls will increase by 25 percent.
– The work of the committee shows that there are several possibilities to organize the collection of tolls in the future, and I think it is a good suggestion to look more closely at how the collection can be organized to ensure stable income and that our cities develop in one direction environmentally friendly, says Hareide. .
Out for consultation
The committee recommends, among other things, the abolition of the current schemes with exemptions and reduced rates for electric cars in toll projects, and notes that toll rates should generally reflect the costs that car use imposes on society. .
– Also in the future will be necessary a stable income for housing derived from car use. Additionally, tolls in urban areas serve many other purposes, including as part of ecological change and ecological urban development, says Hareide.
The committee recommends taking advantage of the current toll system until a road pricing system becomes relevant.
– Now we send this for your consultation, Hareide tells the press and points out that the current system is not sustainable if all cars are zero-emission cars by 2025.
– At some point we will have to grasp this, says Hareide.
Positive for road prices
– I am sure of the idea of a road pricing system, but it will be in a few years. I still think that it is advisable to investigate the prices of the roads in more detail, and then we can address the debate on how such a system should be designed to work well and protect important elements such as privacy, says Hareide in the press release .
It was last year that the government established the expert committee that has analyzed the future revenue outlook from toll networks.
Negative NAF
– We would warn against some of the recommendations here. A bad solution like tolls in the city today is not improved by the fact that more people are affected by it. The report points to the contradictions in tolls that we have been concerned about at NAF for a long time when using tolls. both of them to reduce traffic while wanting to earn increasing revenue for major transportation projects, Camilla Ryste, NAF communications manager, tells VG.
She believes that politicians should go rather well and seek greater government contributions to the development of roads and important public transportation in cities.
– We are against tolls, which is why we think that introducing more and more tolls on both fossil and electrical conductors is a bad idea. We believe that highway and public transportation projects should be financed in other ways. It must be funded by the community, as we pay for the development of other necessary infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals.
When should benefits be eliminated?
Hareide notes that there is a contradiction between the fact that the more we achieve zero growth goals, the less money comes in for infrastructure and public transportation. If you do nothing, your traffic will increase and your income will go down.
– That at some point we are need do something, the report is very clear there. But i won’t say when the right time is. I think it will be just the big political test in this, what time is the right time to do something, he tells VG.
Hareide believes that the report is a good basis for debate and political decisions.
– There will be no immediate change here and now, but I think this report will make a long-term change.
The case is being updated.
