Transport Ministry to examine road use fees for lorries on route to Russian border

Prime Minister takes cautiously positive attitude toward fees

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A working group of the Ministry of Transport and Communications is to examine the possibility of implementing highway usage fees for heavy transport on Highway 7, which stretches from Helsinki to Vaalimaa on the Russian border.
      A sharp increase in heavy traffic has put considerable strain on the road itself, and has led to occasional backlogs along the border.
      Minister of Transport Anu Vehviläinen (Centre) hopes that a road fee system could be taken into use already during the current Parliamentary term.
      The fees are also mentioned in the government's policy programme.
      "The aim would be that a model for the road fees would be available to us next year. Then political decisions need to be made, and hopefully at the latter end of the election term we could impose road fees for heavy traffic on that highway", Vehviläinen says.
     
The head of the group, Harri Pursiainen, a high official at the Ministry of Transport and Communications, notes that the implementation of highway fees is not all that simple.
      "This is a question of legislation. We need to look into what kinds of fees should be set up, where the fee would be used on a trial basis, and how to collect them."
      Pursiainen still feels that it is possible that the fees might be taken into use already when the present government is in office. The fee would apply to both domestic and foreign goods vehicles.
     
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) took a cautiously positive stand toward the proposed highway fees.
      Interviewed on a morning television programme on Tuesday, Vanhanen said that he supports such a move, which would get foreign lorries using Finnish highways to pay for their maintenance.
      He also said that a model should be found to reimburse Finnish hauliers for the payments.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Eastbound transit transport of cars to be moved from road to rail (11.6.2007)
  Parking area for eastbound trucks to cost over EUR 24 million (27.3.2007)
  Russia-bound cargo on Finnish roads is growing dramatically (8.2.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat