WestConnex: M4 western suburbs commuters slugged more for tolls than southwest M5 users, opposition says
EXCLUSIVE: Even taking into account discounts for motorists who drive both ways, the West Connex tolls discriminate against Western Sydneysiders, the opposition says.
NSW
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COMMUTERS from Penrith and other western suburbs will be penalised with higher tolls on the new M4 West Connex routes than those from the southwest who use the M5.
That is the claim from the state opposition who say motorists who will regularly use the new M4 will be unfairly treated when the new links are in operation. The 11km M4 East tunnels between Homebush and Haberfield have reached the halfway mark of construction, West Connex Minister Stuart Ayres will announce today.
The section — to be completed just before the 2019 state election — has been rebadged "the New M4", and 5.5km of tunnels have now been built.
But Labor says the tolls on the first stage of the West Connex — for the M4 widening project which leads into the M4 East tunnels — are going to prop up much of the cost of the $500 million project.
The people using the motorway will pay separate tolls of $4.56 for the M4 and a further $3.95 for the M4 east as they travel into the city.
The total toll of $8.51 will be more than the new M5 East's cost of $6.18.
The Opposition argues that it will take just 2 to 4 years to pay off the work on the M4 widening and the 40 years of tolls on it are paying for everything else — the M4 East tunnels, the M4-M5 link and the widened M5.
“The people of Sydney's western suburbs face unfair and unaffordable tolls for the next 40 years,’’ Opposition Leader Luke Foley said.
“They face annual tolls of more than $2000 and yet they don't get a new road, they get to pay for everyone else’s.
“They have every right to feel aggrieved.’’
Upper house Labor MP John Graham, who is serving on the parliamentary committee looking at Sydney's toll roads, says this means the people of Penrith are paying for trips that people will make from Rozelle to St Peters.
Mr Graham said a widening of the M5, which cost $400 million, led to an extension of that toll from 2023 to 2026 but a similar widening on the M4 would be paid for over the next 40 years, in order to fund the entire motorway.
A spokesman for West Connex said this morning that a motorist driving both sections of M4 at once would pay $7.29.
“Adding the maximum toll for each section of road gives you the $8.51 figure but that would mean the $1.22 flag fall is charged twice which won’t happen for motorists who drive the full corridor.
“They’ll only be charged the flag fall once meaning the maximum toll to drive the full length of the New M4 (Parramatta to Haberfield) is $7.29 ($8.51 subtract $1.22 flag fall).”
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“If you're using the widened M4, you're basically paying for the whole thing,’’ he said.
The anti-motorway rhetoric of the Opposition is expected to continue all the way to the election and will be the central theme of the pitched battle ahead between government and opposition over a motorway that governments have delayed for years.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a "grace period" of one month without tolls after the widened M4 project opens in July. The government says when the M4 tunnels are complete, motorists will be able to travel from Penrith to the western edge of the CBD without a single traffic light. "Labor had 16 years to finish the M4 and instead, completely ignored Penrith,’’ Mr Ayres said.
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