The road network is integral to Australia’s economy, facilitating interactions between businesses and consumers that are essential for the efficient operation of our economy. As such, the quality and cost of providing the network has significant implications for Australia’s productivity and the welfare of Australians. In 2006 the Productivity Commission identified a number of problems with the institutional and funding arrangements for the provision of the road and rail networks. In particular, the Commission highlighted that the prevailing disconnection between the collection of road revenue and spending decisions likely leads to inefficient investment in roads.2 Building on this conclusion, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Road Reform Plan (CRRP) examined the economic gains that might be achieved through effective funding and expenditure reform, and considered a number of specific reform options that could facilitate more efficient road provision.3 This work points to the potential gains from reforming the institutional and governance arrangements for road funding and financing, so as to deliver a road network that satisfies our needs, at least cost. However, to date there has been limited consideration of the implications of alternative road funding models for regional and remote roads where traffic volumes are low, the network is underdeveloped and road provision has a large community service obligation element. The purpose of this strategic Austroads project has been to examine the current funding and financing arrangements for regional and remote roads and consider implications for funding arrangements for regional and remote roads of any road funding reforms that might be implemented. The project has been undertaken in three stages, comprising of: * Stage 1: Developed a snap shot of current and historic road related revenue, expenditure and funding in Australia; * Stage 2: Involved an assessment of the limitations of current funding arrangements for remote and regional roads; and * Stage 3: Set out our analysis of a number of alternative remote and regional road funding options. Our Stage 1 report provided an overview of the road network and current funding arrangements. In addition, we examined road related revenue, expenditure and funding in recent years for different road types (ie, local roads and arterial roads) and areas (ie, rural and urban). Our Stage 2 report, described a number of limitations with current funding arrangements for regional and remote roads, highlighted by a number of case studies. In so doing, we also considered the practice of economic evaluations as applied to remote and regional roads, and implications of possible heavy vehicle charging reform for regional and remote road funding. Our Stage 3 report set out a number of options for funding remote and regional roads, which address the various findings of the earlier stages of the project. We focused on two broad categories of options, namely improving the targeting of road charging to the ultimate beneficiaries of remote and regional roads, and introducing dedicated funding for remote and regional roads. In addition, we also considered a number of policy options that could be considered as part of a direct user charging reform, to address likely revenue insufficiency problems for remote and regional roads. This report brings together the reports from each stage, and provides a unifying overview of the key observations and conclusions that we have drawn over the course of the project. The remainder of this report is structured as follows: * Stage 1, sets out the snap shot of current and historic road revenue, expenditure and funding in Australia, including: — Chapter 2 summarises the results of our Stage 1 work; — Chapter 3 provides an overview of current road network and governance arrangements; — Chapter 4 sets out data on revenue collected from road users; — Chapter 5 provides an overview of road expenditure in Australia for both arterial and local roads, and by jurisdiction; — Chapter 6 summarises road funding from various jurisdictions and sources; and — Chapter 7 provides the conclusions of our Stage 1 work; * Stage 2, sets out the limitations of current funding arrangements for remote and regional roads, including: — Chapter 8 summarises the results of our Stage 2 work; — Chapter 9 sets out the limitations of current road funding arrangements for remote and regional roads; — Chapter 10 describes limitations of typical road project cost benefit analysis for regional and remote roads; — Chapter 11 provides our conclusions about the implications of heavy vehicle road charging reform for remote and regional roads; * Stage 3, sets out options for reforming remote and regional road funding, including: — Chapter 12 summarises the results of our Stage 3 work; — Chapter 13 describes the economic principles of infrastructure pricing, and options for funding; — Chapter 14 explains how charges could be better targeted so as to contribute to funding of remote and regional roads; — Chapter 15 explains how cost reflective charges will not alone be sufficient to fund remote and regional roads, but could be combined with postage stamp pricing, or community service obligation payments, or a universal service obligation to fund remote and regional roads; and * Appendix A1 briefly describes the methodology that was used to allocate road revenue and funding to road types and jurisdictions as part of our Stage 1 work. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting