Re: Lord Adonis: no need to cut travel to save the planet, says Transport Secretary (Daily Telegraph)

On Aug 20, 1:04 pm, allanbonnetracy <allanbonnetr...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
* High speed rail will probably be so expensive that domestic aviation
will still have a market - still no sign of fuel taxation for the
latter, just inclusion in the EU ETS from 2012.

Good, because the last thing we need in the transport sector is yet
another dose of taxes from the unreal world of economics complexly
distorting the market place.

See below about distortion in the transport market!

The original concept of road fuel taxes was actually to pay for road
infrastructure and that remains somewhat true to this day, as
certainly the revenues from the annual tax disc alone don’t even begin
to fund infrastructure.

It's also seen as carbon tax, but the reality is it's set to maximise
Treasury revenues rather than manage demand. Just one of the reasons
why the Treasury so dislikes tram schemes.

From the EC's Future of Transport consultation paper:
===========

2.5% of GDP is collected from fuel and vehicle taxes (EU average).

"Transport users, thus, already pay a significant amount"
but here's the rub
"but the price they pay often bears little connection to the real
costs on society of their choices."

"Total infrastructure costs in road transport – that is fixed cost
plus
maintenance – are estimated at about 1.5% of GDP."

"According to the available estimates – which refer to road transport
– the most
common external costs reach 2.6% of GDP."

===========

So costs amount to 4.1% of GDP, but tax take amounts to only 2.5%. The
difference is what transport users should be paying - different for
every mode obviously.

If you disagree with the above, you have until 26 September to tell
Brussels, as I will be doing about other elements of the report.

Going on-topic, rail operators already pay access charges, often
variable based on capacity utilisation. So that's a congestion charge
in effect. And as we all know, we pay more to travel in the peaks here
and in a few other countries. EU law already allows for HGV tolling -
just as well as truckers cover only 60% of the damage they do to
infrastructure alone!

So aviation and private car use remain market-distorting anomalies...

Last time I checked, aircraft did not make use of road infrastructure,
choosing instead to pass over at 30,000 ft, perhaps this is a very
good reason why they should remain exempt from fuel duties.

No, duty would function largely as a carbon tax, reflecting aviation's
lamentable environmental performance by pass km. Neither does aviation
cover the costs associated with the noise it produces, despite this
also being proposed by the EC in 2001. It's laughable that DafT boasts
that modern aircraft are quieter and slightly more fuel efficient
(1-2% per year), yet aviation has grown almost 5x in 30 years, with
another tripling predicted.

It's hard to believe DEFRA and DECC are departments in the same
government as DafT and CLG, such are the chasms in policy between them.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Not such a small problem...
    ... the amount we pay in road fund is dwarfed by the amount we pay in fuel tax and VAT. ... That thought has crossed my mind too but for a two or three car household the tax disc costs still represent an unfair burden on car ownership, an issue you'd think the car manufacturing lobbyists would have been onto years long since. ... As you so rightly pointed out, the other costs do tend to swamp those of the tax disc, in particular the insurance costs being the most problematical of the fixed charges that act as a deterrent to choosing to use a public transport option for those journeys where the inconvenience factor would otherwise be deemed acceptable. ...
    (uk.tech.digital-tv)
  • Re: Walkers damage the planet
    ... Seems its better to drive than use public transport or walk. ... production costs of food vs the combustion products of the fuel. ... neglects the extraction, refining and transport costs of the fuel. ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: OT: Exxon-Mobil Oil earnings . (Just a tad greedy ?)
    ... >> One of the functions of governments is to protect individuals from ... I think I just figured out why fuel costs are skyrocketing. ... The oil companies have to buy fuel for the trucks. ... >Since they raised the price of fuel it's costing them more to transport the ...
    (rec.outdoors.rv-travel)
  • Re: Walkers damage the planet
    ... Seems its better to drive than use public transport or walk. ... production costs of food vs the combustion products of the fuel. ... neglects the extraction, refining and transport costs of the fuel. ...
    (uk.rec.walking)
  • Re: Bachmann 2006
    ... >> It cost the same to package, transport, warehouse and market a 30 ... > Heljan 47 so I'd expect the transport costs to be lower. ...
    (uk.rec.models.rail)