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Source: ONE News -
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The end of the long weekend has meant another test for New Zealand's latest toll road.
There have been holiday season hold-ups on the northern gateway out of Auckland since it opened two weeks ago - a lot of it caused by sightseers checking out the motorway's tunnels.
But after major hold-ups going north to Waitangi earlier in the weekend the trip home wasn't nearly as bad.
"On the way back from the north people are going to get a dream run once they've got south of Warkworth. For those that are north of Wellsford they should have taken our advice and gone down State Highway 16," Wayne McDonald from the New Zealand Transport Authority says.
The $365 million toll road was designed to relieve traffic flows on SH1 between Orewa - Warkworth but queues of up to 17 kilometres have been reported over Waitangi weekend.
And ONE News found problems at the payment points. One of the two machines at the first north-bound kiosk wouldn't accept notes and the on-site assistance proved necessary as people struggled to figure out the system. At the south-bound payment point, ONE News saw a sign saying don't stop at the kiosk and call the 0800 number. But many motorists ignored the advice.
Many were criticising the marketing of the kiosks.
"I guess we just haven't reached those people that are having that difficulties. We now have 16,000 people that have opened accounts," says McDonald.
"It's not the system. The new toll way is working magnificently. The electronic component is working well and very few people are popping in to do manual payments."
He says the delays were caused by the volume of holiday traffic, and not by any problem with the toll road. And some delays stem from people forgetting their license plate number.
There have been concerns there are not enough cash payment points en route but the Transport Authority says this is a 21st century electronic road and they want people to use modern methods of payment.
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