Posted by
Eastcoast
16 yrs ago
The CHT toll is very cheap at the moment with daily congestion resulting in pollution.
Should the HK raise the CHT toll or reduce the WHT & EHT tolls?
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There was a huge debate about this a few years ago.
The government owns the CHT, so they are "obliged" to keep the prices relatively low otherwise there would be public outcry.
The government doesn't own the other tunnels you mention, so because they are private - those tunnel operators keep wanting to raise the charges to earn more money. The government - under pressure from legislators - tries to make sure those private tunnels don't raise the fees too high.
So you see, it's not a straightforward situation where the government can just decide the charges for all tunnels in HK.
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yes, but it remains ridiculous to keep the CHT fees so low.
the only people benefiting is lorries, taxi drivers and big business
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When they had the huge debate a few years ago... all the groups were arguing about the charges. Anti-pollution activists, big business, small businesses, you name it... everyone had a say.
There are hundreds and thousands of small businesses that use their minivans to go through the tunnel. They say if the fees are raised, they'll have to pass their costs onto the consumer. This is what businesses always argue and in the end, it's the consumer who suffers.
At the end of the day... fees rose at the private tunnels, although not as high as they wanted... so the government - in order to provide a cheaper alternative to road users - had to keep the CHT tolls low. Otherwise, it really is highway robbery to make every available road access expensive. There has to be a choice for people, right?
Of course, I'm against pollution - I'm just telling you what was in the papers, so don't shoot the messenger... :-)
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And by the way, when you say taxis benefit... Taxi customers have to pay all toll charges themselves, so how do you mean that they benefit?
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the argument from taxi drivers was that less people would use taxis to go across, hence lost business. ie. fares are paid but less demand
again don't shoot the messenger ;-)
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Huh! Seems like a lame argument from the taxi trade.
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