Preliminary findings of the toll rationalisation study of three road harbour crossings and three land tunnels between Kowloon and Sha Tin
Proposed framework for practicable toll adjustment options
Mr CHAN Chun-ying opined that the Administration’s proposal of charging different toll levels on Sundays and public holidays would have no effect on diverting cross-harbour traffic from CHT and EHC to WHC during the weekday morning peak hours. Referring to the Administration’s claim that charging different toll levels at different time periods on weekdays might cause some motorists to speed up or slow down on purpose near the time of change of toll levels to avoid paying higher tolls, which might have an adverse impact on the safety of other tunnel users, Mr CHAN queried if such claim was supported by overseas empirical findings. Further, he suggested adopting a longer buffer period between peak and non-peak hours; within that period the tolls were to be increased/decreased progressively every 15 minutes. In his view, this would reduce the incentive for motorists to speed up or slow down on purpose near the time of toll-level change to avoid paying higher tolls.
AC for T/P replied that incremental changes to toll levels within a period between peak and non-peak hours were introduced in some overseas countries implementing electronic toll collection. AC for T/P said that the Administration would consider introducing similar incremental changes to toll levels in the longer term when electronic toll collection was fully implemented in Hong Kong.
At the request of Mr CHAN Chun-ying, AC for T/P undertook to provide the financial statements of the five Government tunnels under the study (i.e. CHT, EHC, WHC, LRT and Route 8K) after the meeting.