M5 East motorway to be tolled for the first time in 2020
Parts of a Sydney motorway will be tolled for the first time in history, slugging southern Sydney commuters with up to $6.69 for every trip to and from the city.
Parts of a Sydney motorway will be tolled for the first time in history, slugging southern Sydney commuters with up to $6.69 for every trip to and from the city.
The M5 East from Kingsgrove Rd through to General Holmes Drive has been toll-free since it was completed in 2001 — but that is set to change in 2020 when the new M5 between Kingsgrove and St Peters opens.
WestConnex said the new M5 will run parallel to the existing M5 to double capacity through the corridor from southwest Sydney to the city’s inner suburbs, cutting “up to half an hour from an average peak journey between Liverpool and south Sydney”.
“On completion, motorists will be able to travel from the King Georges Rd interchange to St Peters in around 10 minutes,” a WestConnex document revealed.
However, convenience will come at a cost, with new M5 commuters travelling between Beverly Hills and St Peters paying up to $6.69 per trip from 2020.
The M5 East from Beverly Hills to General Holmes Drive will cost $6.69, marking the introduction of tolls for the first time on that stretch of the motorway.
From 2023 commuters on the M4-M5 Link between Haberfield and St Peters will pay up to $4.74 to travel just over 7km.
Oatley state Labor candidate Lucy Mannering slammed the so-called “cash grab” after toll gantries were installed at the M5 East entrance at Beverly Hills.
“Taxpayers paid for this road to be built and it’s been free for 18 years,” Ms Mannering said.
“Our community is already feeling the pinch from the rising cost of living and shouldn’t have to cop another cash grab from a government with the wrong priorities.”
Ms Mannering said the State Government should “come clean” about the real cost of the new M5 under WestConnex.
Oatley state Liberal MP Mark Coure was contacted for comment.
State WestConnex minister Stuart Ayres told budget estimate hearings in 2017 tolls would be unavoidable when the $16.8 billion WestConnex project was complete.
Mr Ayres said it would be unfeasible to toll the new M5 and not the M5 East tunnel.
“[Now it has] a capacity for four lanes and it will go to 10 lanes capacity,” Mr Ayres said.
“It would be almost impossible for us not to toll the four lanes and toll the six lanes.”
Campbelltown state Labor MP Greg Warren said tolls were meant to end altogether in 2026 when the motorways were paid for, but infrastructure cost blowouts will instead see commuters paying more for longer.
“This is a concession of guilt by a government that has failed to manage one single project or deliver it in two terms of government – eight long years,” Mr Warren said.
“Because of that they are imposing another 40 years of tolls on southwest Sydney, Macarthur and Campbelltown, and it’s completely unforgiveable.”
Mr Warren said southwest Sydney residents should not have to pay for the government’s incompetence.
“We should not have to pay for their mismanagement of this project,” Mr Warren said.
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