WestConnex: Truckies using rat runs to dodge Sydney’s tolls

The NSW government won’t force heavy vehicles to use WestConnex, despite evidence truckies are increasingly using suburban roads to give M8 tolls a swerve.

Trucks on Stoney Creek Rd at Bexley.

NSW Labor has ruled out forcing truckies to use the WestConnex between south west Sydney and the CBD, despite data showing the number of heavy vehicles using suburban roads to dodge tolls has jumped since the motorway was opened.

The performance review for the first year of the WestConnex, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, shows motorists driving from southwest Sydney to the CBD save an extra 30 minutes since the motorway opened in 2020.

But traffic has increased in that time by up to 20 per cent in the morning peak and 23 per cent in the evening peak on Stoney Creek Rd and Forest Road in the city’s west, as truckies try to dodge tolls on the M8.

Traffic has increased up to 20 per cent in the morning peak and 23 per cent in the evening peak on Stoney Creek Rd and Forest Rd. Picture: News Corp

That equals an extra 62 heavy vehicles on the roads in the morning peak and another 25 in the evening, according to the NSW Transport traffic review, which has finally been released after three years.

The report also states since WestConnex opened it has led to an eight to 14 per cent increase in traffic on Canterbury Road in the morning and afternoon peaks respectively.

NSW Roads Minister John Graham. Picture: Tim Hunter

Roads Minister John Graham hopes toll relief for truckies, promised in Labor’s election campaign, would entice thousands of heavy vehicle drivers to use WestConnex instead of taking to urban roads, with the Minister ruling out a ban similar to that placed on Pennant Hills Road levelled at heavy vehicles to force them onto NorthConnex.

“After spending more than $4 billion on new road tunnels for the M8 this new data shows just how much traffic flooded local streets,” Mr Graham said, adding he wanted to find a “workable solution” which didn’t involve banning heavy vehicles from roads along the M8 corridor.

“The former government promised this information would be available just after the 12 month mark. Nearly three years on from opening it is only now being released.”

It comes after truckies were also sledged financially in the federal budget on Tuesday, with the heavy vehicle road user charge being raised by six per cent a year for the next three years from 27.2 cents per litre of diesel to 32.4 cents by 2025-26.

NSW Labor campaigned on a promise to refund a third of the toll to businesses which notch 10 truck trips taken per week on the M5 or M8, at a cost of $31m, which it hopes will entice heavy vehicles onto the motorways.

Rob Woolley, a third-generation truck driver and a vocal critic of the heavy vehicle ban on Pennant Hills Rd, said toll pressures were likely to force truckies off the road.

“You can probably imagine it’s up there (the cost of tolls on heavy vehicles on the M8) – and if these blokes are doing multiple trips a day, it’s a cost they’re probably trying to avoid – which is totally understandable in the current climate,” Mr Woolley said.