Hong Kong congestion charge looking more likely? 是交通拥堵费可能为香港？

Harbour Times (Hong Kong) reports that the Government of Hong Kong looks like it is more determined to introduce Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) than ever before. The genesis of road pricing in Hong Kong goes back to a study in the 1990s that included some of the first trials ever of using GPS technology to measure distance, with a technology pilot located at the former Kai Tak Airport site.  Politics have got in the way of implementation in the past, and they are still an issue, but given experience that has been built up in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, it would seem easier to introduce a congestion charge in Central and Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island than ever before.

The report says that local think tank Civic Exchange supports introducing congestion pricing and it made a submission to that end.   Civic Exchange claims that 90% of trips in Hong Kong are made by public transport (I'm not so sure, as I would have thought walking would have a reasonable share), but nevertheless it is seen as indicating that there is no problem substituting car trips for public transport for most trips.  It supports minimising exemptions, except for emergency vehicles.  That means charging buses, but since they can spread charge costs among multiple occupants, it should not be a problem.

The proposal from the Government is a pilot in Central and the consultation document and background materials can be downloaded here.

The consultation questions are shown below:

Hong Kong ERP consultation Questions 1-6

Hong Kong ERP consultation Questions 7-13

As you can see there is discussion about geography, whether an area (charging all movements within) or cordon (charge entry-exit only) scheme is preferred, what charging periods should be, the basis for charges, exemptions, technology options (focusing on DSRC and ANPR only), privacy protection and any complementary measures.  These are all good questions, for what it's worth I think that give what is being discussed, a cordon scheme with charging that varies by time of day, with minimal exemptions (emergency vehicles only) and charging based on road space occupancy would be the most effective.   

The intention is for the ERP pilot to cover an area bypassed by the soon to be completed Central-Wan Chai Bypass, illustrated below:

Hong Kong Central-Wan Chai Bypass

This would enable east-west traffic to bypass the concentration of activity in central Hong Kong and Wan Chai, and get access to the Cross Harbour Tunnel (which itself is congested as it has the lowest toll of the three tunnels to the mainland, suggesting that raising that toll should also be a congestion management measure at peak times).

Hong Kong to consult on congestion pricing, rejects raising fuel tax or promoting car-pooling

Hong Kong newspaper The Standard reports that the Hong Kong Transport Secretary, Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, has announced that there is to  be public consultation on the introduction of an electronic road pricing scheme on Hong Kong Island to combat congestion.

The reason for doing so is concern that the public "does not have a clear understanding" of the "proposed scheme", despite it being clear from past studies that there could be considerable merits from introducing congestion pricing for the city.

The Transport Secretary has already stated his support for the 12 proposed measures to relieve congestion from its Report on Study of Road Traffic Congestion in Hong Kong (PDF). These measures included short to medium term steps to:

- Manage the growth of the total motorised vehicle fleet size;

- Better manage efficient use of limited road space (including planning for a pilot congestion charging scheme, and increasing fees at metered kerbside parking places)

- Introduce stringent penalties and enforcement of traffic offences.

Long term measures proposed include:

- Review parking policies around planning (which appears to mean reducing minimum parking requirements);

- Introduce technology to provide real-time information about availability of off-street car parking places;

- Encourage on-street loading/unloading at off-peak times, considering options to use road pricing to incentivise this;

- Provide more park and ride facilities at new towns and developments further out of central Hong Kong.

It is notable what was not recommended such as:

- Introducing a Singapore style vehicle quota system for vehicle ownership;

- Vehicle rationing systems such as applies in Beijing (odd number/even number permits to use roads on certain days);

- Increasing fuel tax;

- Promoting car-pooling/sharing for cross-harbour tunnels;

- Contracting enforcement of traffic offences to the private sector.

There is little explanation as to why increasing fuel tax and encouraging car-pooling were rejected, except that the former has a blunt impact that affects the whole region, and isn't particular effective at targeting congestion, and that the latter is not expected to have much impact.  However, it is considered that once concessions expire for two of the tolled cross harbour tunnels, tolling may be varied between them to help manage demand across the three tunnels (the central one is typically the most congested).

The proposed zone for introduction of a scheme is similar to one investigated in the past, and comprises the area known as Central and Wan Chai, which will be bypassed by a new highway currently under construction.

Possible Hong Kong congestion charge zone

It is not clear what a pilot would look like. I'd say that some sort of trialling of variable peak tolls on the harbour tunnels would actually be a low-risk obvious start, although it would cost money to compensate and negotiate with the concessionaires that own the Western and Eastern crossings. However, the concession on the Eastern Harbour Crossing purportedly ends in 2016 (although the Western Harbour Crossing concession continues to 2023), so there may be some scope to vary tolls to increase utilisation of the Eastern Crossing compared to the Cross Harbour Tunnel.   However, such variations are likely to have to await completion of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass which can more readily distribute traffic on the island side.

Beyond the crossings, a pilot could operate in a small sub-set of central Hong Kong at peak times only, and would be easy to trial.  

Of course, Hong Kong has a history in studying this, having launched trials with GPS technology on vehicles at the closed Kai Tak Airport site over 17 years ago.  It would be a great leap forward for Hong Kong to finally move from that to a pilot.  I can only hope that the consultation and information provided in Hong Kong to the public can be positive, and perhaps it needs to answer one of the biggest questions asked when pricing is offered to the public - what is the money going to be used for?

The answer to that question is far from clear, but perhap therein, lies the scope for more work to be done and for options to be presented to motorists.

Hong Kong Electronic Road Pricing Feasibility Study 2001 (PDF)

Talk of Beijing congestion charging creates opposition

Typically, narratives around government policies in China are dominated by the false belief that if a Chinese Government body says something is going to happen, then nothing can be done about it.  The truth is much more subtle, and besides indicating - in this case - that congestion charging needs to be considered carefully if it is to get public support - it also indicates that China has moved from the stereotype of the Maoist single-minded unity, to one where there is public discourse about policy.

The (Hong Kong based and owned) South China Morning Post reports on a delegate from the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport saying that congestion charging was being considered for city.  However, the public response on weibo (Chinese equivalent of Twitter) was mostly negative. 

The report says:

Opinions posted on weibo accounts were almost one-sidedly negative, with some accusing the government of being "lazy", "brutal" and "greedy".

Nie Sheng, a resident of Daxing who drives to work in Haidian, said a congestion charge would not solve Beijing's traffic jams, judging by past experience.

"In recent years, the government has restricted sales of cars, raised parking fees in the city centre and banned non-local vehicles from the city, but the traffic has only got worse," he said.

Nie also worried that the charge would penalise low income and middle class drivers while sparing the rich and powerful, who could either afford the charge or used government cars.

It shows that if a charge is to be introduced, it needs to be part of a strategy that complements it, not just a tax.  One comment from a government body expresses concern that a congestion charge could affect retail sales, but professor of urban traffic management at Beijing Jiaotong Univeristy, Chen Xumei says one reason why so many use cars is the attitude to public transport:

Most people drive because they feel no dignity on public transport, which is inconvenient, congested, uncomfortable and dirty," she said. "The money collected from the congestion charge should be used to improve public transport"

Indeed, a package to make public transport more user friendly and able to meet a wider range of demand would also make a difference. 

Hong Kong report proposes electronic road pricing

Congestion pricing in Hong Kong seems like a no-brainer, and the authorities in Hong Kong, both before and since the "hand-over" back to China, have acknowledged this formally and informally. Both the north side of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (the parts of Hong Kong that weren't formally part of the lease from China, but were acquired by the UK effectively through conquest) have such high-densities of people (and public transport usage) that pricing those roads would appear to deliver enormous benefits from reduced congestion and pollution, with alternatives (certainly for people movement) obvious.  The added benefit in Hong Kong is that most public transport does not require subsidy, as the network of bus and mini-bus services operates commercially, all with integrated smartcard ticketing, so growth in demand is met by operators investing themselves.  Even the metro system pays for itself, and there has been ongoing investment to expand it, supported by revenue from the property development at station sites.

Options for road pricing in Hong Kong were comprehensively considered in the late 1990s, to the point that the closed Kai Tak Airport site was used for technology trials including GPS for distance, time and location based road pricing.  Options were revisited twice since then, but on both occasions the Hong Kong Government has rejected the idea for political reasons.  New roads and metro lines have continued to be built, but a report in December 2014 from the Transport Advisory Committee recommends that road pricing be looked at again.

The full report is available here (PDF) and states that average road traffic speeds have fallen by 11% in 10 years and air quality has worsened, which is partly attributable to congestion.

The report concluded that traffic congestion has five recurrent causes in Hong Kong:

- Physical and spatial constraints to expanding road infrastructure make it impossible to add capacity to meet demand, with scope for additional capacity becoming severely limited (expecting around 0.4% per annum expansion in road length by 2020);

- Size of the vehicle fleet continues to grow, at a rate of around 3.4% per annum in recent years;

- Competing use of road space generates network delays, such as the loading/unloading of trucks, pick up/set down of buses, taxis and cars, and vehicles circulating for kerbside parking.  All of these activities interfere with smooth traffic flow;

- Illegal parking and stopping, exacerbated by parking fine penalties not increasing by inflation;

- Road works, whether to maintain the highway or in relation to infrastructure underneath the highway.

Measures proposed to address it run across the whole range of road pricing measures, including ownership taxes, fuel tax, parking charges and road pricing itself:

- Increase the First Registration Tax (for all newly registered vehicles) and Annual Licence Fee, including for "Environmentally Friendly Petrol Private Cars"(which have a concession) to reduce the growth in vehicle ownership.

- Tighten up the category for "Environmentally Friendly Petrol Private Cars" reflecting that they still contribute to congestion (this can be done by continually lifting the standard to reflect the latest technology);

- Fuel tax on diesel should be reintroduced, as diesel is tax free, but petrol taxed at HK$6.06 per litre (US$0.78 per litre).   This incentivises a shift to diesel, which should be removed.

- Increased parking meter charges (as these have not increased in 20 years, but inflation in that time would have added 40% to them) as they are significantly underpriced compared to commercial parking facilities, and encourage circulation of vehicles seeking for parks.  

- Central District of Hong Kong should be a pilot site for a congestion charge pilot scheme, following completion of the Central-Wan Chai Bypass, with early public engagement on how it should be implemented.

Talk again of congestion charging in Beijing

Anyone who visits Beijing can't help but notice the intensity of the levels of traffic in the city, which parallel the toxic atmosphere that blankets it as well.  Whilst it is unfair to blame Beijing's air primarily on road transport (Beijing did have many heavy industrial plants located there as part of a Maoist policy of glorifying such industry), it is clear that the excess demand for the available road space is not only strangling the city economically, but also contributing to its suffocation by pollution.

I've written before about the challenges in implementing congestion pricing in Beijing:

- Does Beijing need congestion pricing?

- What should a Beijing congestion charge system look like?

My view is that it can be done, but is probably best implemented on a zonal basis at this stage, with the key issue being able to enforce against number plates in a consistent, fair and well managed way. 

China Radio International reports that "The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau has announced that it will draw up policies related to a congestion charge in a newly issued document."

News briefs - Australia, China, USA (California, Texas, Washington)

Australia - CEO of South Australian borough calls for congestion pricing

Unley is one of the boroughs of Adelaide and according to the Herald Sun, the Unley Council  Chief Executive, Peter Tsokas has proposed to the South Australian State Government, that congestion charging be introduced to raise revenue for public transport.  He specifically called for charges on some roads at peak times to manage congestion.  The reaction has been negative from the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia, although not completely dismissive:

Automotive policy manager Mark Borlace said congestion charges were more suitable in heavily gridlocked traffic zones.  He said the priorities for Adelaide should be improving traffic flow on the city rim, upgrading the north-south transit corridor and improving public transport connections. "When you know that people have ways of going around the congested areas where you don't want cars, then you can have those kind of behavioural things (such as congestion charging)," 

A South Australian state government spokewoman said the government was opposed to tolls and congestion charging.  It's notable that all of the comments under the article were anti congestion charging, except for one that advocated tolling for a new road as long as the toll paid for the road and ended after the debts for constructing the road were paid.

Of course, any debate about congestion charging in Adelaide ought also to include whether it would be an option to replace some existing taxes.

China - Future for congestion charging

Charles Komanoff writes in Streetsblog about his view on where congestion pricing might head in China.   He notes rightly that air pollution is as much an issue as congestion, but revenue generation is not important.

However, the key problems China faces in implementation are around the vested interests and potential losers from any sort of implementation. China needs a comprehensive strategic approach to how road vehicles are taxed and charged, which simply doesn't exists at present.  A key part of this is having the legal framework to enforce any fines or violation notices in a country where traffic safety violation enforcement is haphazard at best.

China has a long way to go, and it could do worse than encourage Hong Kong to implement one of the options extensively studied well over a decade ago, and to encourage at least one mainland city to introduce a cordon charge.

California - Orange County rejects tolling new lanes on I-405

Further to the post I wrote in December on this,  Orange County voted to add an additional lane to the I-405, but rejecting tolling according to the LA Times. It appears that there was little argument made about making highway expansion more sustainable and efficient, but rather that because improvements are partly funded out of a sales tax (don't ask, it's a weird socialist concept that some in the US adopt of dedicated taxes on retail activity to pay for roads).  Voice of OC describes the rather shallow debate.  Whereas NBC reports that the new lanes will cost around US$700 million, which of course will come predominantly not from those using them or directly benefiting from them.  

Texas - HOT lane fines unenforceable

Associated Press, carried by The Trucker, reports that  Houston Metro has no means to legally force non-compliant motorists to pay fines.  Apparently US$740,000 in fines have been issued, but although violators are notified three times of the fines and asked to pay, there is no legal means to enforce it.

This is absolutely laughable as a public policy failure.  Questions ought to be asked.  Who approved for such lanes to be introduced without a legal means to enforce violations?  Was it an oversight by policy makers, or did politicians ignore warnings and decide to press on regardless?  Is this a case of a system being introduced designed by engineers, without advice from lawyers or policy consultants?

Given this is now news, I wouldn't be surprised if, within a few months, the lanes prove to be an abject failure when it becomes well known that the fines are simply requests to pay with no means to do anything about it.

Enforcement is a core component of any electronic free flow tolling system, and needs to include the legal means to treat non-payment of tolls, and fines, as debts that can be recovered like any others.  At the very least, it seems absurd that such fines can't be treated as a penalty for trespass - for unauthorised usage of HOT lanes might be seen as such, if the law would properly define it.

Meanwhile, a report from local TV station KFox14 in El Paso notes that the new toll lanes on the Border Highway are not physically separated from the untolled lanes, but separated by double white lines.  This raises concerns that some road users will weave to avoid detection in the lanes and weave back across the lines, but the answer to this is to enforce the existing prohibition on crossing double white lines on the road. Enforcement of that law is expected to effectively enforce the separate toll lanes.   Hopefully, this should work if done resolutely and sufficiently.

USA - Trucking lobby sceptical about distance based taxation

I read with some amusement an article in The Trucker.Com commenting about Oregon's plans to introduce a vehicle mileage tax.  The key points being:

The American Trucknig Association being concerned about "collection costs, privacy and information security issues, significant potential for evasion and various very difficult institutional issues, including the potential for a lack of interstate interoperability".  Given almost all of these issues are resolvable, I think there may be a bigger concern that the charges set will inevitably mean the heaviest trucks travelling the longest distances will pay more.  The problem is that there is little evidence in the US as to whether there is an appropriate recovery of infrastructure costs now.

What is needed is not resistance, but a reasoned economic debate about the true infrastructure costs of highways and how to efficiently allocate those costs among types of vehicles.  Sadly in the US there is precious little decent analysis about this, and insufficient political will to let charges for road use be based on objective values.  

Washington - State discusses options for future revenues

The Kent Reporter notes that the Washington State Transportation Commission is completing an evaluation of the business case for ways to replace the gas tax with a road usage charge system.

It is intended to report in January 2014 about options to move forward with charging vehicles according to how much they use the roads, rather than fuel, with this work being informed substantially by the trials underway in Oregon.  The findings of work done so far can be found in this presentation, which outlines the key issues very well.  According to this paper, the final report will be issued on 11 January.

News Briefs - China, India, UK, USA

China - Poll rejects congestion pricing

China Daily reports that an online poll (yes I know) by China Youth Daily saw around 75% of respondents oppose congestion charging for Beijing, preferring to support "improving the city's planning process, the road repairing projects, and the traffic management mechanism" to reduce congestion.  Good luck with that then.

Hong Kong - Hopewell retains BBB- Fitch rating

Reuters reported in October 2012 that Hong Kong based toll road investor, Hopewell, retained its credit rating with Fitch.  Hopewell Holdings owns 68% of Hopewell Highway Infrastructure Limited, and Fitch reported:

Hopewell Highway Infrastructure Limited (HHI), continued its stable performance in the financial year ended June 2012 with a 5% increase in revenue. An overall increase in traffic volume is driven by continued economic growth in the Guangdong province, and improving connections to local road networks and strategic locations. In particular, the West Route enjoys synergies from completion of Phase II, and average daily traffic grew by 39% in FY12.

A new tariff framework effective from June 2012, as well as the "Holiday Toll Free Policy" effective from October 2012 will adversely affect cash flow generation capacity of the toll road portfolio. Fitch expects the toll road portfolio's EBITDA to decrease by around 15% as a result in FY13. 

Hopewell is in joint ventures with Chinese companies over five toll roads in the Pearl River Delta area of Guangdong province in China.

India - Toll tags may be mandatory

A report from the Deccan Herald quotes N R Gokarn, CEO, National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP), a government led project, as saying that "RFID tags" that identify vehicles are likely to become compulsory across India.  This would help with identifying vehicles more generally, as well as facilitating a shift towards electronic free flow tolling.  The National Informatic Centre (NIC) contains data on over 90 million vehicles including owners and insurance details, and it is intended that any such system enable ready access to that database for tolling.

India - IRB acquires MVR

LiveMint reports that IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd has acquired 74% of MVR Infrastructure and Tollways Ltd.

IRB's corporate profile states:

The company, along with its subsidiaries has constructed or , operated and maintained around 8,000 lane kms of road length so far and one of the major road developers in the country. The aggregate size of all our BOT projects (both completed and under execution) is around Rs. 170,552 Million (US$3.1 billion).

MVR Infrastructure and Tollways is a construction and toll road management company based in Tamil Nadu.

UK - Manchester still not interested in congestion charging

A rather odd little news report from the Manchester Evening News notes that a survey recently conducted by the AA indicates 80% of those polled oppose congestion charging for Manchester.  A referendum in 2008 saw a 79% "no" vote for a proposed congestion charging scheme that was to raise money to pay for major public transport improvements.

This is hardly surprising.  People wont vote for what they see as a new tax, especially since central government decided to give Manchester the money for some of the public transport improvements anyway, presumably as an election sweetener, and Manchester local authorities borrowed money to pay for the rest.  Meanwhile, Manchester was hit by the recession, and traffic volumes have not increased since 2008.  Any deal for congestion charging needs to offer something in terms of improvements to roads or reductions in other taxes to have any chance of being supported.

UK - Birmingham's transport authority wants private toll road nationalised

I've written about the M6 toll road before.  It was fully privately financed and built, and runs at a loss, without a penny contributed by taxpayers.   It is heavily under-utilised, in part because tolls are highly priced (but revenue maximising) and in part because the travel time savings are not high, except at peak times when the untolled parallel motorway is congested.

This upsets the planners at Centro - the West Midlands Transport Authority - which is responsible for transport planning in the wider metropolitan region surrounding Birmingham.  Centro has no authority over the motorways, but according to the Birmingham Post, Chief Executive, Geoff Inskip wants central government to buy the M6 toll road, reduce or eliminate the tolls, and so relieve the existing untolled road.  It even suggested tolling the existing untolled road at peak times, to help pay for the purchase.

Now I'm no fan of nationalisation, but tolling the existing route at peak times would provide some "competitive neutrality" between the routes.  One idea is that vehicles are charged to use both routes through fuel tax, but none of that fuel tax goes to the owners of the M6 toll road.  If a deal was done to reduce tolls by a proportion reflecting that contribution, it might make a small difference.

USA - New York - Citizens' Budget Commission recommends higher tolls

Capital New York reported in October that the lobby group "Citizens Budget Commission" proposed that 25% of funding of the New York public transit system should come from tolls:

The commission argues that not only should drivers' tolls cover the upkeep of bridges and tunnels, which they do now, but they should also underwrite a quarter of mass transit services, thanks to all of the "harmful consequences" that drivers cause but do not pay for, like "noise, congestion, air pollution and greenhouse gas emission."

To that end, the commission would raise tolls on M.T.A.-controlled bridges and tunnels to as much as $9 in cash. Right now, drivers pay $6.50. Once the 2013 and 2015 hikes go into effect, drivers will pay $7.50.

Further, the commission proposes raising vehicle registration fees, which are now amongst the lowest in the country, and the gasoline tax.

The CBC also says congestion pricing should also be considered, again.

It also proposes fare increases for public transit.   This doesn't mean tolls on untolled crossings, but raises the obvious question as to why not, as the inequities of only charging some crossings simply becomes exacerbated.

News briefs - Australia, China, Indonesia, North Carolina, Ontario, South Africa

Australia - Chair of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission advocates congestion tax

According to the Herald Sun, chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Rod Sims, says that congestion charging, carefully managed, with some money used to support public transport, would make a meaningful impact on congestion and help provide funding to support infrastructure development.  He was making this point at a speech at the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy in Western Australia.

The ACCC is Australia's competition and consumer law enforcement body.  Although it has no specific role in its area, to have a highly placed officer of this body, responsible for consumer advocacy, raising this point adds to the growing number of views expressed in Australia supporting congestion pricing.

China - government declares certain public holidays to be toll free

China's introduction of toll free public holidays has had a mixed response according to state newspaper Global Times.

The report said:

The State Council approved a plan on August 3 to lift toll fees on passenger cars with no more than seven seats during four national holidays of Spring Festival, Tomb-sweeping Day, Labor Day and National Day.

This year's National Day holiday coincidently comes the day after Mid-Autumn Festival, which is governed by the lunar calendar, creating an eight-day national holiday. The State Council has ordered that passenger cars be allowed to travel free on the country's toll roads from September 30 to October 7.

Given China's toll roads are mostly privately owned, the issue has been whether the law has been consistently followed by the private road owners.  People were sceptical that the toll free period would come into effect, and the key reason it was introduced appears to be populism.

The toll free period started at midnight, resulting in large volumes of traffic travelling after that time.  It is not entirely clear from the reports, but it appears that few measures were adopted for traffic management at toll plazas, as the tolls still applied to vehicles with more than 7 occupants.  So vehicles would queue at toll plazas to be quickly flagged on.  One wonders why it would not have been easier to make all vehicles exempt and to have confined the traffic lanes at plazas to a number that avoided the use of plazas to cascade and then merge traffic flows.

Indonesian Government to create new toll road concession company

The Jakarta Globe reports that Indonesia's State Enterprises Minister, Dahlan Iskan, wants state construction company, Hutama Kurya, to become a toll concessionaire.

This would duplicate Jasa Marga, Indonesia's existing state-owned concessionaire, which reportedly has welcomed the move (presumably because it isn't about competition, but about capacity) and will help the company enter the sector.  The report claims that Hutama Kurya will be pursuing new toll roads in Sumatra

Meanwhile, another report notes that Jakarta TollRoad Development, a consortium that includes Hutama Kurya, has raised additional capital from PT Jaya Real Property (JRPT) and PT Jaya Konstruksi Manggala Pratama (JKON), which are part of the Pembangunan Jaya Group, the operator of Ancol Dreamland amusement park in North Jakarta.

JTD is a consortium of PT Hutama Karya, PT Pembangunan Perumahan (PP), PT Wijaya Karya (WIKA), PT Adhi Karya (ADHI) and PT Citra Marga Nusaphala Persada (CMNP).

One project that the firm plans to bid on is a 67-kilometer-long toll road that will connect all five of Jakarta’s municipalities. Based on previous reports, the project will require a total investment of Rp 40 trillion (US$4.19 billion).

North Carolina looking beyond fuel taxes

Business Journal reports that North Carolina Secretary of Transportation Gene Conti has said that the future of highway funding for the state is likely to be tolls and vehicle mileage tax, rather than fuel tax.  A key reason appears to be that the state has one of the highest fuel taxes in the US.  

Ontario to help build toll road for access to mining region

In some countries, developers ask the government to pay for and build the roads to gain access to land they want to develop.  In Ontario, the provincial government has said it will help do that, but will charge all road users to use it according to Wawatay News Online.  The project is intended to be a 300km new road to access an area called the "Ring of Fire" which is rich in mineral deposits.  It is not intended to be a public road, but a road purely for shifting cargo and for access to the mining developments, but is intended to be fully self funding by providing access to all of the adjacent mining claims.

South Africa - Cape Town and SANRAL disagree on tolls for new road proposal

IOL news reports on how a proposed new road in Cape Town, the R300, is showing up the split in policy on tolling in the country.  On the one hand, the City is promoting the road, but not as a tolled route. The City of Cape Town is against tolling on principle and is seeking a "new model" for funding major road plans.  However, national highways company, SANRAL is proposing that it be a toll road.  In any case, there isn't funding for the project at present.

News briefs - Australia, China, Indonesia, Macquarie Atlas Roads, Texas, UK

Australia - New South Wales government denies interest in congestion pricing

AAP reports that NSW Roads Minister Duncan Gay has said that the State Government has ruled out a congestion tax, but is considering implementing distance-based tolling.   Certainly it is clear that NSW is considering reforming toll roads around Sydney so that pricing is more closely related to a proxy for distance, but it is less clear as to whether the state is interested in a wider roll out of distance based charging to replace ownership taxes.

China - Standard & Poors affirms BB- rating and negative outlook for toll road investor Road King

Reuters reports that property and toll road investment company Road King maintains its rating with with S&P.  Property is the dominant factor for the relatively low rating and negative outlook.  On toll roads it reports a more optimistic side to the firm:

Road King's stable operating performance and the sizable cash flows from its toll road business support the rating. The company currently derives more than 80% of its toll revenue from its expressway projects, including the Longcheng Expressway it acquired early in 2011 and which commenced operation in July 2012. We expect Road King's toll road business to continue to provide stable cash flows in the next one to two years, underpinned by its stable profit sharing ratios. 

Indonesia - Longer toll road concessions to be allowed

Tempo Interactive reports that the Indonesian Government is to change the law to extend the maximum toll road management permits for private companies from 40 to 50 years.

The Jakarta Post reports that a 73km toll road is to be built in North Bali from Kuta to Seririt at a price of US$872 million.  The project is intended to open up a wide area for tourism and development, and is linked to plans for a new airport at the north of the island.

Macquarie Atlas Roads posts half year loss and further asset devaluations

Business Spectator reports that Macquarie Atlas Roads has posted a loss of A$75.2 million (US$77.7 million) in the six month to June 30 2012.  This is an improvement on the A$106.4 million (US$110 million) loss for the same period last year.

The A$33.4 million fall in the value of investments comprised a loss of A$26 million on the Autoroutes Paris-Rhine-Rhone (APRR) toll road in France compared to a profit of A$11 million in 2011; a loss of A$7.4 million on the Dulles Greenway toll road in the US compared to a loss of A$10.8 million in 2011; and no loss on the Chicago Skyway toll road in the US compared to a loss of A$17.5 million in 2011.

There was no loss booked for the Chicago Skyway in the first half of 2012 because the carrying value of the road had been reduced to nil.

The Australian reports that the company expects to release a dividend next year.  It also noted:

Macquarie Atlas Roads said the increased losses partly reflected losses on interest rate swaps and higher debt-related amortisation.

Macquarie Atlas Roads said proportionate revenue from its roads rose by 1.4 per cent to $330.8 million in the first half of 2012 despite a 1.9 per cent fall in traffic volumes.

Revenue was boosted by toll increases.

"Macquarie Atlas Roads' portfolio of toll roads has continued to generate positive revenue and EBITDA growth during the period despite difficult economic conditions in Europe and the US," chief executive Peter Trent said.

Texas - new toll road to have highest speed limit in US

The Texas Weekly reports that Texas State Highway 130  (which will be a toll road) will have a speed limit of 85mph (about 137km/h), which will be the fastest in the USA.  Some advocates of private toll roads have promoted the idea that roads could be built to enable relatively safe driving at faster speeds, and motorists could be charged the price to allow it.  In Texas, it looks like it will happening, albeit with an increment of only 5mph.

Meanwhile, the Statesmen argues that the new speed limit is partly about enhancing the viability of the toll road, which includes lowering the speed limit on the existing highway from 65mph to 55mph, even though it will be safer (because the new road will be between the north and southbound lanes of the existing lanes).   Is it a conspiracy to make the new lanes more likely to be financially positive or just coincidence?

UK - Dartford Crossing manual tolling to be gone by 2014

The Brentwood Weekly News reports that the UK Government has announced that it is spending £25 million (US$40 million) to undertake a range of improvements to the tolled Dartford Crossing routes, including removal of manual toll booths as part of a programme to make the highway a fully electronic free flow tollway.  The route is notorious for being a bottleneck in both directions, in part due to the queues at toll booths.  The UK Highways Agency is hoping to have removed the manual toll booths by October 2014.

Shanghai not pursuing congestion charges, but continues to regulate and ration car ownership

Website Eastday reports that Shanghai city officials have said that they are not considering or investigating introducing a "road congestion fee" to address traffic congestion, despite Beijing having already announced the concept has been included in its traffic management plan.

Shanghai has a considerable ring road network

It is focusing on expanding public transport and managing its car number plate auction to ration ownership of cars in the city.  The number plate auction system effectively slows the growth of vehicle ownership and has been in place since 1994.

The number plate auction works by requiring any purchaser of a new car in the city to obtain a number plate through a monthly auction.  The monthly auction limits new vehicles to around 8,000 each month, with the latest price being equivalent to US$9,770 which is higher than China's annual per capita GDP (US$8382 on a Purchasing Power Parity basis), but not Shanghai's (over US$12,000). 

The report notes that there will be around 1.4 million cars with local number plates in the city by the end of 2012.  There is still ample scope for growth in car ownership, given the municipal population of Shanghai is over 23 million people.

Of course it isn't compulsory to have Shanghai registered plates, and over 500,000 vehicles on Shanghai roads are registered out of the city, but such vehicles are banned from "elevated roads" during peak times.  This effectively is a form of traffic rationing based on regulation, by banning non-Shanghai cars from expressways during peaks.  Anyone owning such a vehicle wanting to be registered in Shanghai would need to participate in the auction.

The city is already proposing extending this ban to longer time periods.

Of course, the other effect is to keep the vehicle fleet relatively old, as once one gets a number plate for the car, it stays with the car, so there is every incentive to keep the car as long as possible.  In a city with considerable pollution problems, discouraging fleet turnover will have a negative impact upon this issue.

The number plate auction, as a result, effectively rations car ownership and road space by restricting access to only locally registered vehicles.  However, it also raises revenue that helps subsidise public transport.  The same report indicated that over 2009 and 2010 the number plate auction raised US$1.06 billion for the city, which spent US$860 million on improving the public transport network and offering fare discounts to incentivise mode shift.

The big question will be for how long Shanghai can avoid pricing roads to manage congestion.  I'd wager that if Beijing can successfully introducing congestion charging, and given Shanghai already uses number plate enforcement to regulate usage of major highways at peak times, it would not be difficult for the city to introduce pricing - which after ownership has grown to a certain point, will be inevitable if it really wants to get to grips with traffic congestion. 

News Briefs - Australia, Brazil, China, India

Australia - Melbourne's car park congestion tax to stay despite low impacts

Public broadcaster ABC reports that the Victorian Government is likely to keep the tax on inner city car park spaces intended to reduce congestion, despite a study that claims it has had little effect on congestion.

Inner city parking taxes are often cited as low cost alternatives to implementing congestion pricing.  50,000 car park spaces in downtown Melbourne are subject to such a tax which is either A$650 (US$682) or A$910 (US$956) a year depending on the location.  The tax was introduced in 2006 and raises A$46 million (US$48 million) a year in revenue for the Victorian State Government.

A Monash University study indicated that part of the tax was being absorbed by car park operators and that there was minimal impact on congestion, it suggested that a better option would be a cordon based congestion charge, although motorist lobby group the RACV (Royal Automobile Club of Victoria) rejected that in a report in the Herald-Sun newspaper claiming motorists are already over taxed, preferring more money to be spent on transport projects.

Brazil - Expiring toll road concessions to be retendered

Nasdaq reports that according to the Estado de S Paulo newspaper, the Brazilian government has decided that when the first toll road concessions expire in 2015 it will re-tender them with the intention that rates of return should be lower.   It will also specify that tolls can only be charged after a certain proportion of improvements to highways have been undertaken by a concessionaire.

"To ensure that 5,700 kilometers of two-lane highways are expanded into four-lane highways by 2018, the government will stipulate that operators start charging tolls only after 10% of the lane-duplication process is already executed" ..."As part of a package to improve transportation infrastructure, the federal government plans to license 7,500 kilometers of highways to private operators for a 25-year period".

Concessionaires have expressed concern that environmental licencing imposes a cost on development that will slow down the period between when they start work on a project and can start charging tolls.

China - Beijing traffic plan includes concept of congestion pricing

Global Times reports that Beijing is to get congestion charging included in its latest traffic plan, although there are no details about what congestion pricing will look like for the city.  The article has comments from an academic who says Beijing also needs more rail and congestion is inevitable with fast growth, but also a local resident who uses public transport and supports the idea.  I wrote some time ago about potential options for congestion charging in Beijing.

India - Macquarie SBI buys into Indian concessionaire

According to NetIndian News Network, Australian/Indian joint venture Macquarie SBI Investment Fund (MSIF) (comprising Macquarie Capital Group and the State Bank of India) has announced it is investing US$150 million into Ashoka Concessions Ltd (ACL) of India, along with SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust.  It would appear likely that the reason for the MSIF (and SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Trust) is that Macquarie Capital is restricted from investing in its own right in Indian infrastructure because of foreign ownership limit laws (and the State Bank of India is keen to use foreign capital and expertise).

ACL is a 100% subsidiary of Ashoka Buildcon Ltd (ABL), an Indian engineering and construction firm.  ACL reportedly owns 7 concession toll roads comprising 3,018 lane km (630 length km). ABL itself has a portfolio of 12 Build Own Transfer (BOT) road projects in India (with 6 under construction) excluding its portfolio of footbridges.  Not all of these projects are tolled.

ACL's projects have a construction cost of US$1.5 billion.  78% of the traffic is commercial.  Average remaining concession period is 22.7 years.  This is MSIF's first road investment and will comprise 13% of MSIF's portfolio value.

Macquarie SBI published a presentation with more detail about the investment.

News Briefs - Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Portugal

Brazil - Canada's Brookfield and Spain's Abertis invest in Obrascon

The Globe and Mail reports that Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and Spain's Abertis have formed a joint venture (49/51) to buy a 60% shareholding in Obrascon Huarte Lain Brasil SA.  The price for the consortium is around US$1.72 billion, and the consortium is willing to purchase the remaining 40% if required.  Canadian Business reports:

OHL Brasil is one of the largest owners and operators of toll road concessions in Brazil with more than 3,200 kilometres of roads in states that account for approximately 65 per cent of Brazil's gross domestic product and are home to nearly two-thirds of the country's 70 million vehicles.

The deal means that Obrascon's Spanish shareholders, Obrascon Holdings Ltd, acquire 10% of the stock of Abertis (it already has 5%) raising its shareholding to 15%.  Obrascon effectively maintaining an indirect interest in the Brazilian toll road business.  OHL Brasil has nine toll road concessions.

 

China - public holidays to be toll free

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Chinese Government has announced that cars should be able to drive toll-free on public holidays.  This includes all privately owned toll roads.   The measure is designed as a popularity move as car ownership soars, but most car trips are relatively localised as car owners baulk at paying tolls to travel long distances.  The report says:

Moody’s says the decision will knock up to 5% off toll income this year at Shenzhen International Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed operator of 17 Chinese toll roads.

What will be curious is whether it results in congestion on those days, and whether it will impact on the viability of some future projects.  Another report implied that this was a politically driven move, designed to win favour with the growing middle-upper classes, indicating that regardless China's one-party system, the government is sensitive to public opinion given the ease by which people can express concern or dissent via the internet.
 

India - Taj Mahal toll road opens

I don't typically report on the opening of toll roads, because there would be far too many to report.  However, this report from travel website Wanderlust caught my eye as it is about a new toll road from Delhi to Agra, effectively connecting the capital to the Taj Mahal.  The private expressway is 165km long, six-lanes wide, cost US$2.17 billion to build and the toll is around US$9 as it halves travel time on the route.

 Indonesia - Jasa Marga buys part of PT Translingkar Kita Jaya

The Jakarta Post reports that Indonesia's large state owned toll road company, Jasa Marga, has bought a 21.24% shareholding in private toll road consortium PT Translingkar Kita Jaya for the equivalent of US$14.6 million (Rp137.9 billion).  The company operates the 14.64km Cinere–Jagorawi toll road which is divided into three sections. The first section is 3.7 km from Jagorawi to Raya Bogor, the second is 5.5 km from Raya Bogor to Kukusan, and the third is 5.4 km from Kukusan to Cinere.  The first section is operational, the second to open later this month and the third in May 2013.  33,215 a day are expected on the road by the end of 2012, growing to 47,816 in 2014.

"The acquisition of Translingkar is a part of the company’s plan to maintain sustainable business expansion,” Jasa Marga said in a written statement.

The report notes that Jasa Marga operates 545km of toll roads in Indonesia, estimated to rise to 738km by 2014.

It continues by saying:

The company explained that Indonesia’s toll road development is lagging behind neighboring countries such as Malaysia, which currently has around 4,000 kilometers of toll roads. Meanwhile, Indonesia — the largest economy in Southeast Asia — only has around 750 kilometers of toll roads.

No doubt this is in part due to the fact Indonesia is an archipelago, although the bulk of economic activity is on Java, the main island which has the majority (60%) of the national population (and congestion).

Philippines - Metro Pacific Tollways to be delisted, minority shareholders bought out

Business Mirror (Philippines) reports that  Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) is to delist its subsidiary Metro Pacific Tollways. It intends to do so by the end of the year because only 0.15% of Metro Pacific Tollways is floated, a proportion considered inadequate by the Philippine Stock Exchange.  The Stock Exchange has warned companies with less than 10% floatation that it would suspend trading in their stocks from 2013 before compulsorily delisting them.  MPIC intends to buy out the minority shareholders, which at current market prices would only come to around US$1.2 million.  MPIC Chief Financial Officer David Nicol said the strategy would then be to consider strategic partners to invest in Metro Pacific Tollways. 

Metro Pacific may generate considerable interest given the roads it owns and the concessions it has rights to, given the prospects for potential growth in Philippines as its roads are significantly superior to the untolled alternatives.

Portugal - Abertis sells its shareholding of Brisa to Tagus

Following a report in July that Abertis no longer considers its investment in Portuguese toll road operator Brisa, as strategic, Bloomberg now reports that Tagus has acquired that stake (15% of the operator).  Tagus’s partners are family-owned holding company Jose de Mello SGPS SA and London-based Arcus Infrastructure Partners LLP, and already own a combined 49.6% of equity in Brisa, but 53.8% of the voting rights. Bloomberg seems to indicate that Tagus is seeking to raise its stakeholding to 90% so it can delist Brisa.

The report says that :

The disposal of Abertis’s entire stake in Brisa will generate 312 million euros ($386 million) in cash flow.

Tagus, a venture formed by Brisa’s two biggest shareholders, offered 2.76 euros a share in July .

This followed an offer in March 2012 of 2.66 Euros per share, and Abertis noting a distinct lack of interest in buying the shareholding, no doubt reflecting concerns over Brisa's exposure to Portuguese toll roads in the current recessionary climate in that country.   Abertis appears to have decided to take what it can as it effectively exits the Portuguese toll road market.   The Tagus bid compares to a share price of currently 2.09 Euros following the deal.

Tagus noted that it wasn't obliged to buy more shares after the deal with Abertis, so that many shareholders now indicate that they think there are unlikely to be any significant buyers for the Abertis shares now that Tagus has 85% of the shares in Brisa.

Shenzhen planning for congestion charge but no details yet

Environmental website Cleanbiz Asia reports that Chinese city Shenzhen (located just across the border from Hong Kong SAR has announced it intends to introduce congestion pricing by 2016. It reports:

Shenzhen has 2 million registered vehicles; five years ago it had one million and its maximum capacity is thought to be 2.1 million vehicles. According to Shenzhen’s traffic bureau the city’s vehicle density is the highest in China, with 300 vehicles for every kilometer of road.

70 per cent polled in a recent survey said they opposed the measure.

Shenzhen will introduce a number of green measures alongside its congestion charging plans. These include awarding drivers for taking their vehicles off the roads for 30 days with discounted parking and insurance premiums. The city also plans to add electric buses and taxis to its streets, in a bid to reduce pollution.

There is no more information about the proposal, which given it was first mooted in 2007, is surprising.  Clearly not a lot of detailed work has been done or made publicly available. 

Xinhua News Agency reports further:

Wang Guowen, a researcher from the Shenzhen Comprehensive Development Institute, said the collection of congestion fees indicates the government is learning the experience of some other countries and regions to tackle traffic problems by introducing market principles.

Lu Huapu, a professor from Tsinghua University, said collecting congestion fees would certainly help ease traffic jams in Shenzhen, but it cannot tackle the problem at its roots.

The city is also expected to introduce HOV lanes, which begs the question as to whether these might end up being HOT lanes, if the city can overcome obvious enforcement issues.  There is, as can be expected, ambitious plans for road building and expansion of public transport networks.  

As can be seen below, the issue with Shenzhen is where it ends and another metropolis begins.

Shenzhen with Hong Kong border in yellow

Shenzhen connected to its wider metropolis

The bigger question is whether it or Beijing will be the first Chinese city to introduce congestion pricing.

News briefs this week: Hong Kong, North Carolina, Missouri

Hong Kong

The South China Morning Post report on candidates indicates that Albert Ho Chun-Yan, candidate for the Chief Executive position of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (for the Democratic Party), is the only candidate expressly supporting road pricing.  He is not ahead in the polls, but it will be interesting to see if the election on 25 March will result in whoever wins reinvigorating interest in road pricing in Hong Kong, as this was subject to a major study in the late 1990s including trials of GPS distance based charging using a site at the closed Kai Tak Airport.   Hong Kong has plenty of scope to introduce road pricing to manage congestion and is such an obvious place to introduce either distance or zone based congestion pricing (having already got tolls on the cross harbour tunnels).

North Carolina

In the Fay Observer, Jimmy Keefe - a member of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, serving District 2 - writes criticising the plan to toll I-95 in the state. He opposes it. His view is that the money from tolls will eventually go to other purposes, that the toll will be a burden and that it will drive traffic onto parallel roads. He seems not to approve of the upgrade, and he certainly doesn't offer an alternative for funding.

Missouri

The plan in Missouri to allow tolls on the I-70 Interstate highway includes the option for a PPP to rebuild the highway according to the website of TV station KOMU.  The intention is the upgraded highway be leased for some years.

It reports: MoDOT chief engineer Dave Nichols said. "We're looking for an opportunity to rebuild the corridor, relieve the congestion and keep the toll roads as low as possible."

Missouri DOT has a website about the proposal, which involves reconstruction of 200 miles of east-west highway.  Adding one lane each way would cost US$2 billion, adding dedicated truck lanes ( given a third of the traffic is truck) would cost US$4 billion.  US$2 billion would require a US$0.07 per gallon increase in fuel tax or US$0.003 increase in sales tax.

Banner for the proposal

Route of the proposed upgraded highway

What should a Beijing congestion charge system look like? 了北京交通拥堵费应该是什么样子？

北京交通拥堵费

The BBC reported earlier this week that the Xinhua News Agency had reported that Beijing is looking to introduce congestion pricing. It offers few insights, but Beijing has been experiencing reductions in traffic recently due to increases in parking charges and fuel prices. It introduced a limit on new car registrations, but the effectiveness of this will be restricted to those who have no options to register addresses or ownership of cars outside the city.

The idea of congestion charging Beijing has received a lot of commentary, some ill-informed suggesting that CCTV cameras can do it (they can’t). Some suggesting it be London style (it wont be enough). The report itself indicated it might apply to a few roads, but Beijing would be wise to not just copy what is done elsewhere, or let engineers implement what is feasible. Rather it should analyse the congestion problem itself, map out where and when it happens, and design a system to address that. Given the exuberance of engineers to build and design solutions that fit what they think can be done, it is wiser for policy managers to take a deep breath and decide what they want to achieve, rather than what they are told they can do.

China Daily reports the goal is to increase public transport mode share for trips within the Fifth Ring Road to 50%, up from 40%, and to reduce travel time to 1 hour from outer suburbs to the fifth ring road.

Beijing with Fifth Ring Road highlighted

On the face of it, Beijing needs a charging system that is quite comprehensive. Simply charging individual routes will result in diversion, and simply charging one big zone will have only limited impact. What is needed is a scheme that will be easy to implement as of first, but which is readily scalable. Singapore has the closest model to this at the moment, but its technology is now obsolete for any new systems. My suggestion is that Beijing, indeed China, take a far bolder step.

Given the expected growth in road transport in the next few decades, China is in a perfect position to take advantage of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to manage traffic and improve safety. A few years ago it was reported that China had the highest road fatality rate globally, on a per vehicle basis. While there are a lot of conventional measures that can be taken to address this, one should be to build an ITS platform for safety and tolling measures to be introduced across the country.

One option would be to adopt the US 5.9GHz platform as mandatory for all new vehicles (no doubt China may prefer to have its own and the EU has another standard), which would allow for the following safety related applications:

- Emergency vehicle warning system;

- Forward collision warning;

- Intersection collision warning and avoidance (road and rail crossing);

- Active highway cruise control (allowing vehicles to be more closely spaced);

- Priority signal control for buses and emergency vehicles;

- In vehicle sign displays;

- Vehicle instability warning (e.g. cornering too fast).

I visited Beijing for the ITS World Congress in 2007, and saw that there are hundreds of Chinese firms and people with the talent to progress such systems in the country.  There are equally many firms worldwide eager to install and help operate systems.  The key frustration for most ITS professionals is the cost of retrofitting infrastructure and vehicles to take their technology, a problem that isn't so big where both infrastructure and vehicles are newer, and growth makes such a transformation potentially affordable.

However, my key interest is having a vehicle identifier that makes it cheap and efficient to do electronic free flow tolling. Then the matter of number plate recognition and maintaining a high quality number plate database (and enforcement system to recover fines), can be minimized if all vehicles are required to have a DSRC device that is sophisticated enough to be used for tolling.

Initially, it could be used to phase out manual toll booths, reducing congestion on them, but for Beijing it would allow for electronic toll gantries to be installed strategically to manage congestion. Each gantry could be priced at different times at different prices in order to target charges. Of course the best targeting could be done with a GPS based system measuring distance, but for now let’s consider what Beijing could do with a tag and beacon/DSRC type system.

The image below (click it to expand) shows how Beijing, within the 5th ring road, can be split between major arterials to form zones. The obvious example for an area charge is the very centre, but that would never be enough to address congestion on the scale required in Beijing. Far better will be to charge for trips between zones. Trips on the boundary roads could remain untolled, far better to allow efficient trips around the zones, but to penalise for travelling further.

Ring roads in red, radials in yellow, a framework for a charge?

Parallel to this obviously has to be to allow for growth in bus services, but I’d suggest they also must consider active modes as well, which have done extremely badly from Beijing’s rapid expansion of roads. Walking and cycling may have once been seen as modes used by people in poor countries, but they are cheap, healthy and occupy the lowest amount of road space per person moved. Enforcing pedestrian crossing, building over and underpasses, and cycle lanes will all be important in ensuring people don’t feel that it is unsafe to walk and bike short distances.

Meanwhile, Beijing could do worse than watch Jakarta as it seems likely to progress before it does, or to look at the extensive work undertaken in the 1990s on electronic road pricing in Hong Kong. However, the key enabler for all of this is enforcement, identifying vehicles and pursuing violators, without the means to do this efficiently, congestion pricing is not going to be effective.

Then there is the issue about what to do with the money.  The obvious answer is to use it to pay for road maintenance and upgrades, improved pedestrian and cycling facilities, or offset other taxes or restrictions.   The more transparency around this the better, and it could gain public support if people saw

Meanwhile, central government in China should consider how to future proof road transport by considering how it can built in ITS to its networks and vehicles from the start. For developed motoring countries like the USA, the cost and transition period to move to using technology on roads is high and long term. China has both the money, time and the forward growth to be a world leader in ITS and ITS managed highways. It can do so and at the same time, save lives, reduce congestion and pollution.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen is considering congestion pricing according to Xinhua, and it definitely has the experience of Hong Kong's extensive studies and trials to draw upon.