Australia’s toll road giant insists it is working as fast as possible with the NSW government to reach a deal by Christmas on a shake-up of Sydney’s tolling regime but warns it will defend a $36 billion investment in the city’s motorways over the past two decades.
Almost a month after former competition tsar Allan Fels released a final report into tolling, Transurban chief executive Michelle Jablko said all parties were now sitting at the table “willing to find an outcome”.
Sydney’s patchwork of toll roads is facing a major shake-up.Credit: Louie Douvis
“There’s clearly work to do to get there,” she said on Thursday as she released Transurban’s annual results. “We’re willing to work quickly on that.”
Transurban and its large investment partners have proposed plans for “corridor pricing” whereby tolls are based on motorways in sectors of the city. This differs considerably from Fels’ preference for declining distance-based tolling across the entire network.
Jablko said it had proposed a corridor-based solution because it was “simpler and able to be done faster”, as it did not need to be rolled out across all tolling agreements at once.
“There’s a genuine willingness to explore options. The fact that we’ve put forward a corridor-based option means there is flexibility in how a solution may play. It’s just premature to say what that solution might be,” she said.
Jablko said the Minns government had recognised the importance of honouring existing toll road contracts and that Transurban and its partners had invested $36 billion in Sydney’s motorways over the past two decades. “Our communication has been focused on protecting the value of the investment that has been made in a way that delivers outcomes for Sydney,” she said.
Last month, Fels said Transurban had “not been the quickest off the mark in dealing with us” over his proposals but, in the end, was willing to look to do a deal with the government by Christmas.
However, his final report has warned that Transurban’s proposal is not in the public interest and will put the interests of the toll road operators first.
Transurban earned about half its total revenue of $3.5 billion in the year to June from drivers in Sydney, where it controls 11 of the city’s 13 toll roads, including WestConnex.
Toll revenue from WestConnex surged 22 per cent to $791 million after a major interchange at Rozelle – the final part of the motorway – opened in November. Average daily traffic on WestConnex rose almost 10 per cent to 299,000 vehicles a day.
WestConnex tolls rise annually by the rate of inflation or 4 per cent, whichever is greater.
Transurban has had a $1.7 billion project to widen the M7 motorway in Sydney’s west and connect it to the new M12 motorway under way for almost a year. Work is progressing on foundations for seven new bridges for the M7-M12 junction.
Construction is due to be completed in 2026, in time for the opening of the new Western Sydney Airport.
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