With its sparkling natural harbour, beautiful beaches, and the majestic Blue Mountains just a drive away, Sydney is one of the world’s great cities. But if there’s one thing blighting the lives of Sydneysiders it’s toll roads with their constant demands for dollars as they negotiate the city’s roads.
Sydney is one of the most tolled cities in the world, with its residents forking out about $2 billion in tolls annually, making Transurban one of the more tempting prospects on the ASX for investors.
The indefatigable Professor Allan Fels recently released a report into Sydney’s road tolls, producing no less than 42 recommendations for improving a system he found was flawed, badly structured, uncompetitive, and unfair on motorists.
The report has been welcomed by the Transport Workers Union (TWU) as “a potential solution to an exploitative system that has long disadvantaged owner-drivers and the transport industry.”
The TWU particularly welcomed the recommendation of a Middle Class Heavy Vehicle classification for vehicles 3.3 metres or less high, and 12.5 metres or less long. This would reduce the toll multiplier from triple the cost of a car to just twice the cost, producing a fairer outcome for heavy vehicles on toll roads.
But it also welcomed the report’s call for more transparency and oversight of toll setting through a government-owned authority monitoring tolls.
More flexible pricing
Among the report’s other recommendations are more flexible pricing, including peak and off-peak tolls to influence demand, and a declining distance-based structure so that the further a vehicle travels, the lower its tolling cost.
And when it comes to pricing, another recommendation was that toll setting should be overseen by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal(IPART).
Professor Fells also recommended an infrastructure charge for parts of toll roads that have been expensive to build, such as ventilated tunnels.
Two-way tolling
Another key recommendation was introducing two-way tolling on the two harbour crossings and the Eastern Distributor. The extra money would then be used to lower tolls on the rest of the network.
It’s now up to the NSW Government to respond to Professor Fells’ report.
“Toll reform is critical for Sydney, and this is a once in a generation chance to address this issue,” said NSW Roads Minister John Graham.
“Former governments have had an attitude of set and forget on tolls, but the result is now a combined burden of $195 billion to be paid out to 2060 and a city that is more congested, more divided.
“Under these long-term contracts, Sydney is a place in which people make choices about where they work based on the need to avoid paying tolls. The problem grows each year. Over decades, it will become unsustainable.
“We are determined to put motorists first as we push ahead with these challenging reforms.
Sydney’s motorists will certainly be praying that the government starts reforming its mishmash of expensive tollways sooner, rather than later, so that this great city becomes a little cheaper to travel about in.