LettersHong Kong’s dysfunctional governance is evident in the paralysis over tunnel tolls

The transport minister need not shelve the government’s plan to revamp cross-harbour tunnel tolls even if it fails to garner support in the Legislative Council

Lawmakers opposing the plan may face a backlash from voters who use public transport

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Vehicles travel through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, in the morning rush hour. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 9:13am, 11 Mar 2019Updated: 9:13am, 11 Mar 2019

If there is a single example to illustrate that Hong Kong now has a dysfunctional system of governance, it is the tolls at the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. Official inaction and obfuscation has allowed this sore point to fester for many years.

I refer to the article “Lawmakers still cool on toll plan” (March 1), which revealed that politicians fear losing popular support if they back the plan, and “Last chance in four years to revise tunnel tolls” (March 2) in which Frank Chan Fan, Hong Kong’s transport minister, says he will shelve proposals to ease congestion until 2023 unless he is supported at the Legislative Council on March 27 when he plans to re-table the motion.

It seems that our Legco representatives are acting out of personal interest, given that the large majority of their electorate are not car owners and commute by public transport. They should realise that voters may go against political parties that are now giving priority to private cars over public transport.

The ease with which Chan intends to further procrastinate, or rather to give up, is lamentable. Revising tolls needs no new infrastructure, just a decision, and if the result doesn’t work, then adjust it again until you find the optimum. The vote at Legco is non-binding on Chan.

In 1996, Nobel laureate for economics William Vickrey said: “One of the most dramatic market failures in the public sector has been the failure to use market principles to reduce waste involved in queuing at congested toll facilities”. This was quoted in a Hong Kong study entitled “An estimation of efficient time-varying tolls for cross-harbour tunnels in Hong Kong”.