Opinion | Let government run Hong Kong's transport system

Plans for toll rises to ease cross-harbour traffic congestion have been badly received, as expected. The fundamental principle of the three options is to raise charges for the popular Cross-Harbour Tunnel and reduce tolls for the Eastern Harbour Tunnel.

Once again, it shows that no matter how hard the chief executive and his administration try, they seem to lack the oomph to achieve their goals. If Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying wishes to redeem a bit of his dignity, he must resolve the perennial cross-harbour traffic problem.

No matter how you look at the three options proposed by the government, all are based on the principle of subsidising the operation of the eastern crossing with public money, ultimately benefiting the operators.

The consultation document has also painted an overly optimistic picture.

It states that one option will help reduce peak-hour queues by 40 per cent, or 4,100 cars per day. That seems rather impressive. Up to 120,000 cars use the central tunnel daily, yet its official capacity is 78,000 cars per day. Congestion is at its worst at peak times, meaning that even if the proposal could cut queues by 40 per cent on average, it still remains to be seen how much smoother the traffic flow would be.

About 70,000 cars use the eastern crossing per day - which is already 90 per cent of its capacity of 78,000 cars. So, diverting traffic from the central to the eastern crossing would probably mean clogging up the latter without resolving the jams at the former.