Plan to ax expwy tolls hits major pothole

The Yomiuri Shimbun

In another blow to the Democratic Party of Japan, the planned abolishment of expressway tolls will most likely run into a brick wall due to a shortage of money, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

In its budget request for fiscal 2011, the transport ministry may seek only several tens of billion of yen more than the 100 billion yen it received this fiscal year to make expressways toll-free, according to sources.

The DPJ pledged in its manifesto for last year's House of Representatives election to make all expressways, except the Metropolitan and Hanshin expressways, toll-free by fiscal 2012. It estimated this will cost 1.3 trillion yen; The ministry's latest budget request will be only a fraction of this amount.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry initially requested 600 billion yen for the program for fiscal 2010, but this was pared back to just 100 billion yen due to fiscal constraints.

The DPJ planned to eliminate tolls on 50 sections covering 1,652 kilometers on 37 expressways--about 20 percent of the national expressway network--in fiscal 2010. Most of these sections are in regional areas.

If the ministry bumps up its budget request by just several tens of billion of yen, only about 30 percent to 40 percent of the nation's network will come under the toll-free umbrella, even if the program focuses on lightly used regional routes.

According to budget request guidelines the Cabinet approved Tuesday, the ministry can request funds from "special reserves for reviving Japan" in addition to a similar amount set aside this fiscal year for the toll abolition program.

The special reserves are expected to top 1 trillion yen.

However, the ministry decided any hefty increase on this fiscal year's budget could hamper other policies, including those in the New Growth Strategy, the sources said.

Some observers believe the ministry could yet increase its budget request to deflect criticism that the DPJ has broken its election promise.

Transport minister Seiji Maehara has warned that expected traffic congestion on expressways after tolls are dropped "mustn't be allowed to disrupt the transit of goods." This concern has made Maehara somewhat unenthusiastic about abolishing tolls on major arteries with heavy traffic, such as the Tomei Expressway.

A trial of the free expressway program that started June 28 on the Higashi-Kyushu Expressway resulted in a 5.7-fold jump in traffic between the Saito and Miyazaki-Nishi interchanges.

On June 20 and 26, this section averaged 2,100 vehicles when the toll was capped at 1,000 yen. The figure jumped to 12,000 vehicles daily between July 17-19.

Overall, expressways that took part in the experiment reported a 100 percent increase in traffic.