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Ryan Bridge: Would you pay $9 to cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge? · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Would you pay nine bucks to cross the Harbor Bridge.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The answer, of course, depends on whether you can afford it.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Congestion charging is coming, don't forget that, So if you're
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: going at peak times, it's going to cost you a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: hell of a lot to drive. This is only a proposal,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: by the way, based on the original toll inflation adjusted
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: that was almost seventy years ago. Now the suggestion, and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: nothing's hard and fastest comes from the Infrastructure Commission report
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: we got out yesterday. We know there'll be a toll
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to cross the new bridge or tunnel, whichever gets built,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: because the government has already told us that they will
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: do that. I've told us they'll be a toll. What
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: we know now is that both the old and the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: new crossing will need to be told, so there's no
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: avoiding it. If you can avoid it, they don't collect
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the revenue that they need to pay for the new one,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and then you go, why nine dollars they reckon? It's
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the sweet spot that'll get enough people using it to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: make enough money to pay for the new build again
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: without scaring everybody off and then leaving it short on revenue.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So basically, a car over the bridge becomes a luxury item.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: You'll either need to be a little bit rich, or
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: as happens overseas, your employer might pay for your car,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: or you to your truck to crossover. But what about
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: everybody else, Well, don't worry. When they build the new bridge,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: it'll have bus lanes or public transport options or trains
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: on it as well, so you can get public transport
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and that'll be cheaper. Most people they reckon in this
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: report will opt for the alternative, the public transport, which
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: is fine so long as public transport suddenly becomes reliable
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and more linked up and bus drivers aren't getting stabbed
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and bashed all the time, which is currently the problem
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: they have. The other point here is is nine dollars
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: actually that much money in the scheme of things. People
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: cross the harbor by ferry for about that price every day,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But there is a cap on how much you pay
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: over time, of course, and usually you haven't got your
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: car running costs and your petrol et cetera, et cetera,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: so driving we'll basically become a premium option. The question
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: then becomes, do you not build something like this because
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: nine dollars And the answer is simple, of course you do.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: If we complain about the cost of building stuff and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: never build a thing, we will continue this death spiral
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that we've been in. We need productivity, growth, infrastructure, all
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: those good things, and they don't come from nowhere. They
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: come from good planned investment. What we need is decent
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: financial controls on the design and construction. We need a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: government doing the budget rather than the gold plated version,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and then we need the government to agree with the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: one that comes after it that this is in the
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: national interest. This is a national interest project. Mess with
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the bridge and you mess with us, and then it's simple.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: You just get on and build the thing. For more
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News
• 2:54
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• 2:57
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