Hong Kong tunnel incident just a bump in tolls road
- But city authorities must explain why thousands of motorists were overcharged on the first working day of new payment system
Time was not on the side of thousands of motorists who were overcharged at the start of the latest phase of a new time-adjusted toll system. The incident was, of course, unfortunate, but it should not deter Hong Kong’s journey towards finding a solution to long-standing problems with traffic jams at the crossings.
Authorities must provide a full explanation of what happened at the Western Harbour Tunnel on Monday. It is good that apologetic Commissioner for Transport Angela Lee Chung-yan has announced an investigation after about 4,700 motorists were each charged a few dollars extra.
Those affected crossed between 10.02am and 11.04am on the first working day of the new system introduced the previous day at all three of the cross-harbour tunnels. Lee said an employee using a previous charging scheme may have been behind the mistake, and 70 per cent of those affected had received refunds by the following day.
It is encouraging that the Western crossing was the only site where such a glitch occurred, and there was smooth traffic flow under the toll adjustment scheme meant to ease congestion by varying charges depending on the time of day.
Hong Kong police to investigate if tunnel overcharging incident was deliberate
From 7am to 11am, 64,000 vehicles passed through the three crossings. Traffic at the Western Harbour Tunnel slightly increased and vehicle numbers at the other two crossings dropped.
More vehicles crossed at the links before 7.30am, when peak-hour charges kicked in, and peak-hour traffic on Monday night was lighter than usual.
Results indicate that the new measures are paying off and building on the first phase implemented in August when charges for private vehicles using the three tunnels were realigned to drive more traffic to the Western crossing, which has long been underused because of its higher tolls.
Transport officials must address complaints from minibus passengers who said they saw fares on cross-harbour routes jump as much as 43 per cent after tolls were increased. However, such issues and the recent charging setbacks must not put the brakes on progress towards solving a problem that has jammed the city’s main roads for far too long.
