We’ll get back to work: Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton

Transurban chief challenges doomsday predictions about the working-from-home revolution.

Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton is challenging the theory that working from home will empty the CBD permanently. Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian.

Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton has challenged doomsday predictions that the working-from-home revolution will permanently empty the nation’s CBDs, as new figures give the toll-road giant renewed confidence to invest billions of dollars on infrastructure to help rebuild the nation’s battered economy.

With its annual results on Wednesday Transurban will release a study titled “Urban Mobility Trends from COVID-19” based on travel perceptions research conducted last month in Australia, the US and Canada.

The study found while one-in-two respondents (45 per cent) had worked or were continuing to work from home since the emergence of COVID-19, 86 per cent believed they would not significantly increase the amount of time they worked from home following the pandemic.

Surprisingly, only 14 per cent said that the experience of COVID-19 would significantly increase the level they worked from home post-pandemic, signalling a return to work at centralised workplaces on a large scale.

Some 42 per cent of respondents expected life would return to normal within 12 months.

“We were surprised at the numbers. But one of the things that is happening is the longer we go through the pandemic and the more work life and personal life are interfering with each other, a return to the office is becoming more appealing,’’ Mr Charlton told The Australian.

“Look at recent historical events like 9/11, the GFC and SARS: you can see recovery has eventually occurred. So too a pandemic ends and things ­recover. Yes, the world will be different but it won’t go to the extremes some people predict.”

The Australian reported on Tuesday that Transurban and its partners QIC and Canada’s CPPIB had lodged an unsolicited proposal to the NSW government to widen its busiest road, the Westlink M7 motorway, with an interchange connecting to the government-backed $1.8bn M12 road.

Transurban is also part of a consortium shortlisted to build, finance and operate toll lanes in Maryland outside Washington DC.

It already operates toll lanes on the Beltway and Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia.

“We look at history and see what happens in different industries when we go through big events. Then we look at long-term trends. That data gives us confidence in investing billions of dollars into new projects to help governments with recovery,’’ Mr Charlton said.

While the survey was commissioned by Transurban and conducted by Nature Research Australia and Leger Canada, it did not involve Transurban customers.

It also found that people in Australia now chose health and safety as their No 1 consideration for transport mode choice, as opposed to convenience, raising considerations about the resilience of the nation’s transport networks.

“If you look at what has happened in China, the thing that bounced back quickest was people driving,’’ Mr Charlton said.

“The first to recover is roads and then active transport, such as biking and walking. Public transport seems to be last to recover. But the congestion levels in Sydney and Brisbane are getting close to pre-COVID in peak times. You can see the recovery is occurring in those markets. Over the long term we need that integrated transport system. We need both modes to function and be safe.”

Contrary to popular opinion, less than 20 per cent of the traffic on Transurban’s network of 14 Australian city tollways is commuter traffic.

When nationwide lockdown restrictions took hold earlier this year the company suffered a significant decline in traffic volumes, with travel on Melbourne’s CityLink — one of Transurban’s flagship toll-roads — falling 50-60 per cent year on year in April. It has now fallen again following the city’s stage 4 lockdowns.

But the survey found 48 per cent of respondents were shopping online more, and half said they would continue to do so after the pandemic.

“Truck traffic and freight traffic has held up. The increase in online shopping has helped. Even at the height of the pandemic we only saw freight down 10 per cent. It is now only down a few per cent in Victoria,’’ Mr Charlton said.