Victorian drivers pay $1.88m a day to Transurban for CityLink tolls in Melbourne

ROAD tolls extracted from Melbourne drivers using CityLink soared to an eyewatering $687 million last financial year. Now infrastructure giant Transurban has set its sights on the North East Link.

VICTORIAN drivers are coughing up $1.88 million a day in tolls to use Melbourne's CityLink, as the road operator Transurban reveals the North East Link is on the company’s wish list.

The multi-billion tolling giant announced the “missing link” in Melbourne’s north was a potential opportunity during the annual presentation to investors this morning.

Transurban also revealed Victoria’s tolling revenue hit a record $687 million last financial year, an extra 4.1 per cent, despite the number of users declining by 9000 per day.

The timely release comes after Premier Daniel Andrews unveiled four potential routes to join Melbourne’s M80 Ring Rd to the Eastern Freeway or EastLink yesterday.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces the four North East Link routes. Picture: AAP

However Mr Andrews carefully dodged questions on whether the government had met with Transurban to discuss the project.

Instead he flagged more detail would be known after a preferred option was revealed by the end of the year.

“We are going to get this right, we are going to get it done, we are going to ease congestion on local roads and indeed right across the city,” Mr Andrews said.

The North East Link routes were revealed yesterday.

The shortest proposed route is estimated to cost $6-$10 billion and the longest 40km route could cost $18-$23 billion.

The Victorian government has previously committed to a toll road, which will underpin the business case to be finished by the end of this year.

The latest results also come as Transurban nears the end of negotiations with the State Government to extend the CityLink toll deed for 10 to 12 years to build the $5.5 billion West Gate Tunnel Project.

Transurban CEO Scott Charlton in the Melbourne office. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton appeared before the Senate Inquiry into the Operations of Existing and Proposed Toll Roads last week saying the user pays model allowed government to focus their resources on funding public transport projects.

Today’s release shows the company had a bumper year across Australia with tolling revenue hitting $2.1 billion, boosting profit by $187 million.