Sydney’s toll roads: Expert confirms drivers are getting ripped off

SYDNEY drivers are getting ripped off and deserve a more benefit-based pricing system, with higher tolls for fast lanes and lower tolls for slower lanes, a leading transport expert says.

• M4 western suburbs commuters slugged more for tolls Sydney commuters spending more than $8000 a year on toll roads

SYDNEY drivers are getting ripped off and deserve a more benefit-based pricing system, with higher tolls for fast lanes and lower tolls for slower lanes.

A leading transport expert from the University of Sydney told The Daily Telegraph that drivers were being forced to pay on motorways regardless of whether the trip was quicker than a free road.

University of Sydney Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies founding director Professor David Hensher said drivers were prepared to pay more for a quicker trip if they knew that the time savings were guaranteed.

Traffic moves along the Warringah Freeway during rush hour. Picture: Getty Images

“The logic is you pay a toll so you save time but the toll we have at the moment is disconnected to the actual benefit of time savings,” Prof Hensher said. “That gives people a much more realistic choice about using a free road or using the tolled road.”

But the Berejiklian government has ruled out toll pricing reform while toll road giant Transurban was refusing to take the fight to the government, despite using variable tolls on its roads in America.

Interactive: Toll roads of Sydney

A spokesman for Road Minister Melinda Pavey rejected the proposal for High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes yesterday. “It is not government policy to implement time-of-day tolling. The only place it is being applied is on the Harbour crossings, as implemented by the former Labor government in 2009,” the spokesman said.

The implementation of higher tolls in peak times on the two Harbour crossings had made little difference to congestion levels, he said.

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Transurban, the operator of seven of nine tolled motorways in Sydney, is successfully using the HOT lanes model on its US roads, but says here the government sets the toll prices.

Transurban CEO Scott Charlton has in the past promoted the benefits of peak and trough toll charges, but yesterday the company insisted it was not lobbying the Berejiklian government for any variance in toll charges.

A Transurban spokeswoman said the company had “never proposed High Occupancy Toll lanes to the NSW government”.

“Ultimately, the decision to introduce HOT lanes is one specifically for the NSW government. Transurban is not aware of any plans to introduce HOT lanes in NSW.”

Professor Hensher said Transurban’s reluctance to support HOT lanes in Sydney was related to its desire to secure predictable revenue. He said the government had shown limited vision in setting toll price parameters well into future decades and had strangled opportunity for flexibility.

Taking a toll on families

IT’S not just about the money — for Kellyville Ridge couple Andrew and Loretta Pearce and their Quakers Hill friends Ash and Micayla Moeller, toll costs impact directly on the quality of their family life.

Andrew Pearce with wife Loretta and baby Jackson. Picture: Toby Zerna

A fire systems service technician, Mr Pearce said he spent about $3000 in tolls last financial year, after making an effort to get that down from more than $5000 the previous year, which means he’s up at 4.30am and away from Loretta and seven-week-old son Jackson for almost an extra hour each day.

“It is frustrating. It feels like we don’t have a choice in the raising of our child. We’re down to one income and we’ve just bought a house and we’ve got a mortgage we can only just afford,” Mrs Pearce said.

That extra $100 a week or so would be really useful to help pay for other things, and the way things are going Loretta could even be forced to go back to work early, Mr Pearce said.

For Mrs Moeller, the revelation that tolls were costing her husband more than $60 a week came as a shock.

“I had no idea we spent $240 a month and we could really use that to put towards a new car,” she said.

— CHRIS HOOK