Consumers' Foundation threatens suit over ETC

The Consumers' Foundation (消基會) yesterday urged the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to return the electronic toll collection (ETC) exclusive lanes to general traffic, citing illegal operation of the system.

If the ministry failed to respond within two weeks, the foundation said it would file a lawsuit against the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau for "dereliction of duty," said Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), the consumer advocacy group's vice chairman, at a press conference yesterday.

Operations of the nation's first ETC system have been stuck in a rut since the Administrative Supreme Court voided a partnership between the ministry and Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (遠通電收) early last month, citing an unfair bidding process.

Since then, the ministry has tried to negotiate with the private firm, intending to have Far Eastern run the system during the interim period.

Talks have ended in deadlock as Far Eastern demands a service fee three times the current level.

"The ministry and the freeway bureau must not repeat mistakes and ignore consumers' interests. We demand that the government halt the illegal operations immediately," Cheng said.

The foundation's statistics show that an average of 1.33 million motorists travel on highways per day and that ETC users only account for 17 percent, or 220,000 people.

Cheng said two ETC-exclusive lanes only serve a minority of motorists as 83 percent of drivers suffer heavier traffic flow when approaching toll stations.

The foundation also demanded that Far Eastern give a full refund to the ETC users.

In response, Far Eastern said that ETC lanes eased heavy traffic flow, especially during rush hour.

Citing figures from Taipei County's Taishan (泰山) toll station, the firm said said in a press statement issued yesterday that the number of cars passing through ETC lanes between 7am and 8am last Friday was 1,393, compared with 810 cars that drove through manned toll-collection lanes at the same time.

This showed ETC played a greater role in easing traffic congestion in rush hour, with ETC users and the usage ratio gradually increasing, Far Eastern spokeswoman Lang Ya-ling (郎亞玲) said.

Yang Hsi-an (楊錫安), director-general of the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau, said yesterday that legal experts had different opinions on whether the build-operate-transfer contract was still in effect with the Supreme Administrative Court's revoking of Far Eastern's status as the best candidate for the ETC system.

Yang said the contract was still valid in the eyes of the ministry. Should any party involved in the contract consider this an invalid contract, it could always settle the dispute in court, he said.

Turning to the Consumers' Foundation, Yang said that it was the Executive Yuan's policy that 220,000 motorists be able to continue to use the on-board units.

He added that the ETC system was able to collect fees from 1,500 vehicles per hour, whereas manual collection could only process 900 per hour. During rush hour, the system helped shorten queues at toll booths in Taishan, Yangmei (楊梅), Shulin (樹林) and Longtan (龍潭) by 200m to 300m, he said.

Yang said that a 10th round of negotiations between the ministry and Far Eastern had concluded with no consensus being reached.