The new toll scheme for Hong Kong's cross-harbour tunnel, also known as the "three-tunnel diversion," is a plan proposed by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam in the 2018 Hong Kong Chief Executive's Policy Address to divert traffic from the Cross Harbour Tunnel, Eastern Harbour Crossing and Western Harbour Crossing. It is a form of congestion pricing.

Background of the policy Introduction Traffic congestion has emerged as a significant socioeconomic issue in Hong Kong. In 2021, cross-harbour traffic during peak hours has been confirmed to exceed 26% of the total capacity of the three tunnels, and it takes drivers up to 25 minutes on average to pass through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel during the morning rush hour, a full three times higher than during the smooth traffic periods, indicating that the overall traffic congestion in the three tunnels in Hong Kong has reached its peak.立法會交通事務委員會 (2022, December 6). 過海隧道的擬議收費方案. 立法會CB(4)1046/2022(03)號文件.

In recent years, the Hong Kong government has undertaken some efforts to address this challenge by focusing on toll adjustments to redistribute traffic across the three tunnels. Following a tortuous legislative process, the implementation of the three-tunnel diversion policy was officially released in 2023.Transport Department. (2023, December 14). Toll plans for road harbour crossings.

A timeline of policy development 2008:

Legislative Council member Raymond Ho Chung-tai proposed that the government could pay for the Western Harbour Crossing and the Harbour Crossing shares from CITIC PACIFIC. The significance of this proposal is that after the acquisition of shares, the ownership of the three tunnels will return to the Hong Kong government. By then, the Hong Kong government will have a greater initiative to reallocate the traffic flow of the three tunnels without being restricted by third parties, thereby easing traffic congestion. However, the proposal did not receive any direct response from Eva Cheng, then Secretary for Transport and Housing and the chairman of the Hong Kong housing authority. As a result, the proposal was shelved.評論編輯室. (2023, March 23). 觀點|延宕的三隧分流 反映香港大問題. 香港01.

2013:

The then Hong Kong government led by Leung Chun-ying formally launched the tunnel consultation to the public and proposed three possible toll adjustment plans to explore the possibility of the first step of traffic diversion through the main objective of increasing the price of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel and reducing the price of the Eastern Harbour Crossing. However, the proposal was subsequently met with massive opposition from the members of the Legislative Council, which eventually led to the policy being shelved after a public consultation.news.gov.hk (2013, April 20).  Tunnel consultation to end May 7. Infrastructure & Logistics.

2016:

In the early morning of 7 August 2016, the Eastern Harbour Crossing 's franchise expired and the EHC was officially taken over by the Hong Kong government.Cheng, K. (2015, October 28). Eastern Harbour Crossing toll will not be lowered after gov't takeover in 2016. Hong Kong Free Press HKFP. At that time, the Road Tunnels (Government) Ordinance (Cap. 368) and its subsidiary legislation were formally extended to cover the Eastern Harbour Crossing.Hong Kong e-Legislation. (2023, August 2) Cap.368 Road Tunnels (Government) Ordinance. This means that the government's three tunnel diversion plan has been further pushed forward, because the management of the two main tunnels is already in the hands of the government.

2018:

The Hong Kong government, led by Carrie Lam, has again proposed a "544" scheme to adjust tolls between the three tunnels. The main proposals of the Scheme include reducing the tolls of the Western Harbour Crossing with government funding, so as to provide economic incentives to attract more people to use the less used tunnel, so as to achieve traffic diversion and relieve traffic congestion. However, the plan was eventually shelved after it failed to gain support in the Legislative Council.News Editor. (2023, August 2). 收回西隧|年年賺錢仍加價 曾提回購、補貼、「544」方案 30年專營權今告終 . 有線寬頻 i-CABLE.

2023:

The Western Harbour Crossing franchise will be held by the Western Harbour Tunnel Company Limited until 1 August 2023, and its management will be formally transferred to the Hong Kong government. By then, the three cross-harbour tunnels in Hong Kong will finally be fully managed by the Hong Kong government.

In August 2023, the first phase of the policy officially began, with the introduction of the 633 fixed toll scheme as a transitional plan. In December of the same year, the time-varying toll plan was further implemented in all directions. Until this moment, the Hong Kong Government has been negotiating for more than 10 years, the three tunnel diversion plan finally officially became a reality.

Details

Stage one: "633" fixed toll plan and "HKeToll" in 2023/8/20 To reduce traffic flow around the Harbour Crossing and the Eastern Harbour Crossing by narrowing the difference between private car tolls as follows:Transport and Logistics Bureau. (2023b, March 22). 「633」.

HKeToll

In Western Harbour Crossing, all manual toll booths and Autotoll lanes will be cancelled. +Private cars （All time periods）Western Harbour CrossingCross-Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Harbour Crossing HK$60HK$30Taxi（All time periods）HK$25Other vehicle typesUnchanged

Stage two："Time-varying toll plan" in 2023/12/17

This change was aimed to regulate traffic flow more precisely during peak hours and to encourage citizens to use the three tunnels outside peak hours. This policy also simplifies the toll structure for commercial vehicles in the Western Harbour Crossing. There is transitional tolls between the time slots. +Vehicle typeDatePeriodWestern Harbour CrossingCross-Harbour TunnelEastern Harbour Crossing Motor cycles / motor tricycles Monday to Saturday （Public holidays are not included）Peak time slot HK$24HK$16Normal time slotHK$12Off-peak time slotHK$8Sunday and public holidayNormal time slotHK$10Off-peak time slotHK$8Private carsMonday to Saturday （Public holidays are not included）Peak time slotHK$60HK$40Normal time slotHK$30Off-peak time slotHK$20Sunday and public holidayNormal time slotHK$25Off-peak time slotHK$20TaxiEverydayAll timeHK$25Other vehicleHK$50

Criticisms and social discussion Criticisms Inequality

The 633 toll proposal introduced a significant change in the charges in a relatively complex adjustment. The proposed congestion charges level was said to have been adjusted severally after hearing opinions from the Legislative council;民建聯. (2023, March 21). 「方向正確 但須調整細節」,民建聯回應新三隧分流方案. DAB Official Site. but despite acknowledging the positive effects that the time-subjected toll difference may help alleviate tunnel congestion, Roundtable legislator Michael Tien criticises that doubling the tolls in Cross-Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Harbour Crossing from its previous price a drop would induce inequality to their public users.RTHK. (2023, March 22). 田北辰稱紅隧東隧擬加價不公平 倡再收窄三隧收費差距 - RTHK.RTHK. (2023, March 23). News Programme | Hong Kong Today(2023-03-23) - RTHK.

DAB Legislator Ben Chan also expressed concern over the increasing costs on taxi and other commercial drivers, arguing the policy should consider fixing taxis' tolls at $20 all-day while compressing tolls in commercial vehicles.DAB. (2023, March 21). DAB's response to new solutions for traffic flow diversion problem of the three tunnels. DAB Eng Site. He added the raise of Cross-Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Harbour Crossing to diverge traffic towards the Western Harbour Crossing may have neglected the needs of the residents in east-northern districts thus creating forced-inequality; where the residents would have relatively less flexibility and/or incentive to shift due to geographic and habit factors, forcing them to pay higher tolls with few room to hedge.

The new policy suggested a toll of $25 HKD for taxis and $50 HKD for mini buses had sparked dissatisfaction of unfairness among commercial vehicles.881903. (2023, April 21).議員:三隧分流方案商用車收費高 運輸署:已比現平均收費低|本地|商業電台 881903. 商業電台. The Then-Commissioner for Transport Rosanna Law explains the toll fee for light trucks, licensed bus and minibus had not been adjusted for almost four decades and costs over $75 HKD in average, the new toll fee is expected to alleviate cost burden for these tunnel users in general, but did not directly address the free difference between taxi and minibus.

Ambiguity

The 2nd phase of the tunnel diversion splits time spans accordingly as "peak hours"and "non-peak hours", with different prices of tunnel tolls. In March 2023, legislator Ben Chan doubted the policy's effectiveness in altering users' traffic habits, when the "peak hours" design exhibits extensive coverage over the clock creating less temporal differences between the three harbour crossings, thus making ambiguity to the effects of time-varying tolls.

Rosanna Law assures the diversion effect of the 633 arrangement would gradually become more visible when entering the time-varying toll (also known as phase 2). She said that the new arrangement is functioning when congestion appears later than usual in the first week (August 6th 2023) of the implementation, but the effect is yet to be as obvious to expectations, while further effects are to be observed when students are added to the equation as they return to school.on.cc 東網. (2023, August 6). 三隧新收費「633」 運輸署承認分流作用非十分明顯.

Externalities

The 633 toll arrangement sets different prices to vehicles according to their types, such as private vehicles, minibus, taxis and trucks. Apart from the criticisms of inequalities in toll prices between minibus and taxi, the lower taxi toll $25 HKD compared to private vehicles $20 HKD (non-peak hours) had caught concerns in creating negative externalities in the transport business. Legislator of Functional constituency: Transport Frankie Yick Chi-ming argues the proposed toll charges difference may encourage acts of patronising unlicensed transport means (usually refer to non-commercial vehicles illegally carrying passengers), because the cost to travel across harbour would be relatively cheaper than taking a taxi.

Social discussion

Motorists (private car drivers) Motorists have held diversified views over the latest pricing scheme. A survey conducted by Hong Kong Research Association had revealed that over 40% of local drivers agreed that the government should change the charges among the three harbour crossings to relieve the cross-harbour traffic congestion problem.Hong Kong Research Association (2019, January).《四成三市民支持三隧分流方案》. 香港研究協會. Some even supported the adoption of the time-based charging system.鄭寶生 (2023, March 22). l三隧分流｜民主黨調查逾六成人認為政府方案難分流　倡按時段收費. 香港01.

Opposing motorists have mainly criticised the drawbacks of the pricing scheme as the charge of Western Harbour Crossing is still too high compared to the two other harbour crossings, which will hence provide insufficient monetary incentives for motorists to change their driving habits.RTHK. (2023, June 28). 李耀培指633方案對疏導車流作用不大　因西隧費用高. 香港電台. Some also indicated that the time-based charging system might be quite complicated for drivers to understand, resulting in more inconveniences or even opposite effects.大公文匯. (2023, March 23). 三隧分流兩步走　駕駛人士擔心反效果. Some further expressed their concerns on whether the scheme meets the public needs. Dr. Ringo Lee, President of Hong Kong Automobile Association, claimed that most local employees might not easily change their commuting patterns due to their inflexible working schedules, while traveling earlier would also increase their car-parking costs, these would outweigh the benefits brought by the scheme.趙克平. (2023, October 11). 三隧分流｜的士業批私家車收費較低屬「厚此薄彼」  汽車會料難達分流效果. 星島網.

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