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Speaker 1: Government set aside a combined total of one point two billion.

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Speaker 1: This is to get key projects moving in the roads

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Speaker 1: of National Significance. Program includes half a billion to buy

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Speaker 1: up houses. Tolls will be the default. James Smith is

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Speaker 1: with the National Road Carries with me this morning.

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Speaker 2: James, good morning, Good morning, Ryan.

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Speaker 1: Does the toll I mean, how do you feel about

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Speaker 1: the tolls? Does that cancel out the efficiency or the

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Speaker 1: benefit from the fast and newer roads or is there

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Speaker 1: a net gain?

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Speaker 2: There's normally a net gain, Ryan, So normally you get

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Speaker 2: the increased productivity cancels out the cost of the toll.

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Speaker 1: What do you expect with the roads that we have done,

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Speaker 1: Like I'm thinking North of Auckland, I'm thinking Kapity Expressway.

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Speaker 1: What have you seen? How significant has the midshift been?

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Speaker 2: It has been significant. So what we've seen is not

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Speaker 2: only slightly faster times, but it's more the consistency, so

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Speaker 2: the fact that the route is now a lot more dependable.

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Speaker 2: It's a lot more reliable. So what you need in

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Speaker 2: our sector is consistency. So you need to know that

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Speaker 2: if you leave it X, you're going to arrive at

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Speaker 2: Y and you're going to do that on a consistent basis.

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Speaker 2: So we're seeing that with all of these projects that

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Speaker 2: brought much needed resilience, safety, and productivity to the network.

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Speaker 1: Does that make stuff cheaper for us because you're carrying

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Speaker 1: our goods, aren't you?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we are, and it slows down the rate of

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Speaker 2: rate of increase, so everything else is still going up.

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Speaker 2: So sorry, but yes, you still expect rates to rise,

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Speaker 2: but it helps soften that blow.

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Speaker 1: Do we need do you need some sort of reassurance infrastructure?

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Speaker 1: New Zealand came out as they saying we want to

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Speaker 1: see more bipartisan buy in on this kind of stuff,

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Speaker 1: especially if it's rons.

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Speaker 2: Do you agree, Oh, absolutely, and we've actually seen that already,

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Speaker 2: so Labor Transport spokesman and have actually already said that

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Speaker 2: if the pros are actually up and honking, if there's

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Speaker 2: a change of government, they will honor the projects. So

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Speaker 2: that's why it's absolutely mission critical. These projects, some of

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Speaker 2: them we'd be wanning for since the nineteen fifties for

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Speaker 2: them to say can actually get shovels on the ground

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Speaker 2: and get moving.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate your time this morning. James Smith's National Road Carriers

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Speaker 1: with us for more from early edition with Ryan Bridge

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks it'd be from five am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio