By Matt O'Sullivan and Tom Rabe
Sydney’s motorists will be hit by a 6 per cent surge in tolls on the WestConnex motorways just months before a state election that is expected to be dominated by cost-of-living concerns.
Surging inflation has already triggered higher quarterly increases in charges on other Sydney toll roads, increasing pressure on the government which is due to complete a wide-ranging review of tolls within the next two months.
Transurban operates all of Sydney’s toll roads apart from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Tunnel.Credit: Brook Mitchell
Transurban, which operates almost all of Sydney’s toll roads, confirmed tolls on WestConnex would rise by 6.1 per cent on January 1. WestConnex comprises multiple motorways including the widened M4, the M4 East and the M5 East.
Labor roads spokesman John Graham said the leap in WestConnex tolls would amount to the “worst ever New Year’s Day gift” for motorists. “Peak toll inflation will hit Sydney just as voters go to the polls in March. That will have drivers upset, and the government worried,” he said.
Under so-called escalation rates, distance-based tolls for WestConnex rise annually at the rate of inflation or 4 per cent, whichever is greater.
It means maximum tolls for cars using the WestConnex motorways will increase by 64 cents to $11.10 on January 1, and for trucks by $1.91 to $33.31.
Metropolitan Roads Minister Natalie Ward said tolls routinely rose quarterly or yearly in line with inflation as NSW Labor knew full well because it had locked the state into contracts for a number of toll roads when it was in government, including the M7 and the M2.
“It is curious that despite much conjecture and criticism of the government, Labor has zero plans and zero policy when it comes to tolls, or anything else,” she said.
The inequity of Sydney’s sprawling toll-road network and its effect on cost of living are key focuses of a Treasury-led review into the way motorists are charged. The review is due to be handed to the government within the next two months.
The looming jump in WestConnex tolls prompted the opposition to question the government over the timing of its tolling review in parliament on Thursday. Premier Dominic Perrottet did not answer questions about when the review would be released.
Labor has said it will release its full policy on road tolling closer to the state election in March. However, it has said it would return revenue from charges for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Harbour Tunnel to drivers in the form of tolling relief if it wins government.
Part of the final stage of WestConnex – a tunnelled link between the M4 and M8 – is due to open to motorists early next year, which will result in Transurban controlling 13 of Sydney’s 15 toll roads.
Transurban told shareholders on Thursday that traffic on its Sydney motorways surged by 18 per cent in the September quarter on pre-pandemic levels, helped by the opening of new motorways such as NorthConnex in Sydney’s north and parts of WestConnex.
The company has repeatedly told investors that it will benefit from “inflation-linked toll escalation” across its motorways in Australia and overseas. Almost 70 per cent of the revenue it reaps from motorway charges is linked to tolls increasing at the rate of inflation.
Under agreements reached by successive state governments, tolls on the M2 and NorthConnex rise every three months by the rate of inflation or 1 per cent, while those on the Cross City and Lane Cove tunnels increase every quarter by the consumer price index.
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