M4 motorists to feel pain for 40 years

THE cost of the M4-widening project should be recouped within three years — but western Sydney motorists will be forced to pay tolls for at least another four decades.

Motorist Angelo Frelingos says the toll will cost him thousands of dollars a year.

IF you use the M4 between Parramatta and Homebush, new tolls will rip money out of your pocket for half a lifetime in what some are calling “a big monster tax”.

The new toll will cost motorists up to $4.56, which means five-day-a-week commuters face paying an extra $2188 a year to travel on the M4. The boom means Sydney Motorway Corporation should recoup the $500 million cost of the M4 widening in three years.

However, under the deal signed by the State Government, it will continue to collect tolls for another 40 years. Granville state Labor MP Julia Finn said western Sydney motorists were being “ripped off”.

Granville MP Julia Finn and Opposition leader Luke Foley lodged a petition against the toll.

“It will be over 40 years of reaching into your pocket — that is half of your life,” Ms Finn said.

“And it will go up four per cent a year — that’s double the current rate of inflation.”

Ms Finn said the M4 toll would effectively be used to pay for other stages of the West Connex project, including the M4-M5 link and the widened M5.

“It’s simply unfair that someone living in western Sydney has to pay for a road between Rozelle and St Peters,” she said.

Ms Finn and NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley presented a 10,000-signature petition against the toll in Parliament last week. Ms Finn said Labor would be able to do little to get rid of the toll once it was in place.

“The government should never have entered into the contract,” Ms Finn said.

“The terms of the contract are secret and there may be penalties (for removing the toll) so it may not be possible for Labor to get rid of it, even when we get back into power.”

The M4 toll was abolished by the Labor Government in 2010.

The government has said a month’s free motoring will be given, with tolls to kick in during August, though no firm date has yet been set.

But the month-long toll relief has been ridiculed by the state Labor opposition who say it is simply tokenism.

Motorist Angelo Frelingos said the new toll was unfair and that he would be avoiding the M4 entirely once the toll came into force.

Mr Frelingos, 58, an engineer at Sydney Airport, has been driving from his home in Merrylands to the airport every weekday for 40 years.

He said he could think of better uses for the additional $2000 a year it would cost him to use the new stretch of road. “It is fine widening a stretch of the M4 but I think that just gets you to the next bottleneck quicker. I’d rather invest the $2000 a year than give it to the Government,” he said.

Sydney Motorway Corp chief executive Dennis Cliche Sydney and Minister for WestConnex Stuart Ayres inspect work in the M4 East tunnel.

But Minister for WestConnex and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres told the Advertiser: “WestConnex is a $16.8 billion project, not a $500 million project.

“The toll concession for 43 years is for the entire 33km of WestConnex, not just a small section of it.

“WestConnex has a per kilometre toll structure that charges the same price no matter which section you drive on.

“The toll is also capped. The simple fact is that if you lower the toll escalation rate you have a higher starting toll.”

The M4 has not had any tolls since 2010.

Originally published as M4 motorists to feel pain for 40 years