Transfund News No. 1 July 1996 - National Roading Programme

This the very first edition of Transfund news following the launching of the Crown agency as the dedicated land transport funding agency, separated from Transit New Zealand (which remained as the state highway manager).  The edition was understandably focused on the 1996/1997 National Roading Programme, Transfund's first. It had previously been called the National Land Transport Programme reflecting funding for both roads and public transport, but the new emphasis was to reflect Transfund's role as essentially a purchaser of road maintenance and improvements, and public transport services, on behalf of motorists.

 Key elements were:

• $743.7m ($1.45b in 2023 prices) in total spending for the year (compared to $675.9m the previous year, a 10% increase).
• The increase reflected a Budgetary increase of $122.9m over the subsequent three years.
• The benefit/cost threshold for capital spending was reduced from 5:1 to 4.5:1 for the 1996/97 year and to 4:1 for the 1997/98 year. This reflected Government confidence in Transfund ensuring quality of spending and the general Budget entering surplus (enabling a greater proportion of fuel tax revenue to be directed to the National Roads Fund).
• The three-year cap on passenger transport funding was removed.
• Passenger transport funding was increased by $13.5m to replace funding removed due to abolition of regional fuel taxes.
• Additional spending was otherwise focused on increased maintenance, minor safety projects, new state highway construction projects, bridge reconstruction, continuation of seal extension.
• Major projects to start included:
• Albany-Silverdale section of the Albany-Puhoi realignment (SH1 Northern Motorway)
• Otira Viaduct SH73 Canterbury
• Stoke Bypass SH6 Nelson
• Orewa River Bridge Auckland
• Thorndon motorway viaduct seismic upgrade SH1 Wellington
• The newsletter contained a table comparing the previous year's spending by output class.

Transfund News July 1996 No.1 Pg1

Transfund News July 1996 No.1 Pg2

Transfund News July 1996 No.1 Pg3

Transfund News July 1996 No.1 Pg4

In Transit February 1995 - creation of a National Roads Fund and a separate land transport funding agency

 

Announcement of creation of a National Roads Fund

New structure for Transit NZ and SH6 Haast seal completion

Road toll down in 1994

Campaign about stock on roads and centralising traffic control in Auckland

Funding reform

The focus of this issue of In Transit is further reform of the road sector.  Legislation introduced (and subsequently passed) created a hypothecated roads fund and what would eventually become Transfund New Zealand, as a separate dedicated land transport funding agency. Albeit at the time of this newsletter, Transit NZ was hoping to avoid this. At this time, Transit NZ was both the state highway manager and the land transport funding agency, and did not wish to lose the latter function, which meant that it was responsible for decisions for funding itself, as well as funding local authorities for local road and passenger transport activities. Transit NZ's response to the reform was to set up a separate division, to deliver the funding function separate from its other activities, although it would all report to the same General Manager and Board. The Government of the day did not accept that this would be adequate separation between funder and provider.

The fund would mean revenue from road user charges, motor vehicle registration and licensing fees, and a specified portion of fuel excise duty would go into a National Roads Fund, which would determine the quantum of funds available to spend on land transport.  The reason for this was to ensure that growth in revenue from road users would be reflected in funding available for land transport infrastructure. Linked to this was the requirement to develop a national land transport strategy.

The reforms also saw provision made to continue previous introduced regional petrol taxes to support public transport funding (although not permanently). The new entity (not yet called Transfund) was at the time named as the New Zealand Roads Board, but in the interim a separate subsidiary entity would be set up in Transit NZ to undertake funding before it was completely separated.

Separating the funding and operational functions was seen as "improving Transit NZ's commercial transparency".  All of this was essentially reversed on 31 July 2008 when Transit NZ was merged into Land Transport New Zealand (which itself was a merger between Transfund NZ and the Land Transport Safety Authority in 2004), into the entity now known as Waka Kotahi/New Zealand Transport Agency. 

Other

• SH6 Haast Pass sealing has been completed.
• Road toll in 1994 was the lowest in 15 years at 581, attributed to increased speed enforcement and a major anti drink-drive campaign. Also noted was the safety audit programme reviewing the safety issues of potential projects. Crashes at black spots fell 35% in nine years. 
• Concern farmers are not using stock movement signs adequately.
• Investigation into what would be Auckland's Advanced Traffic Management System and centralised traffic control, with electronic signage that would later be introduced across Auckland's motorway network.