A private company can build the second M1 but it will cost motorists more than they think
The real question about a toll for the Coomera Connector is can a private company be found to build and fund it. READ WHAT YOU WILL BE CHARGED
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The real question about a toll for the Coomera Connector is can a private company be found to build and fund it - and will that achieve the aim of building the highway much faster.
Remember, the second M1 is all about taking 60,000 vehicles off the Pacific Motorway.
By creating a $2.1 billion highway between Nerang and Coomera, the M1 returns to its original role - a national highway for Brisbane-Coast commuters, tourists and freight trucks.
Residents from the coastal strip wanting to go north will access the Connector from Nerang-Broadbeach Road or Smith Street. Those from Coomera take those exits heading south.
How do you slap on a toll and get those locals to pay it?
Is there a private company which can fund and deliver it before the 2032 Olympic Games?
Transport sources say only one privately owned toll road operator could build a toll road — that’s Transurban which partnered with the former Government on the Logan Motorway.
Did Labor ever consider this for the Coomera Connector?
“That was not ever contemplated as a toll road,” a transport source said, adding the aim was to get as many locals as possible to use it.
This debate was ignited after Labor saw a snippet in this masthead about private toll talks.
Opposition leader Steven Miles asked Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg in State Parliament: “Will the Crisafulli LNP government rule out charging Queenslanders?”.
Mr Mickelberg did not rule it out, rather rambled on about Labor union links being a toll.
My transport source says: “He took up all of three minutes blowing up about Labor. It’s a source of real concern, that something is brewing.”
Mr Mickelberg has since said a toll has not been discussed. Coomera MP Michael Crandon at Foxwell Road earlier this week, has taken it a step further. He says it will not happen.
Deputy Mayor Donna Gates, standing beside him, said: “I don’t think it’s fair to put a toll on this road that’s so long promised and late in delivery.”
City planning chair Mark Hammel like Mayor Tom Tate says “all options should stay on the table for now”.
“If we want this project fast-tracked and built to the scale we need, we should explore all possible ways of funding it - including both toll and non-toll options,” he said.
But how do you get people to pay as low as $4 - like some Brisbane tolls - or more realistically $15 or $20 with a truck, to use the Coomera Connector?
Another senior transport source, says of a toll: “It is ludicrous. It won’t work. All of the toll roads in Brisbane have shown that.”
When confronted with an alternative - like using Coronation Drive rather than a toll for the Toowong tunnel - motorists opt for congestion with a view of the Brisbane River.
“The only way it would work would be to have a toll on the Coomera Connector and the M1,” the transport source added.
It’s an informed answer - surely one which should stall all debate on a future toll.
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Originally published as A private company can build the second M1 but it will cost motorists more than they think
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