WestConnex: Rising toll charges will put drivers on the road to ruin says NSW Opposition   
The Daily Telegraph
August 14, 2017


SYDNEY’S drivers will be slugged with a staggering toll rise on the WestConnex of more than 25 per cent by the time it is completed in 2023, the opposition claims.   

The $4.56 toll on the first stage of the project will rise 26 per cent to $5.76 when it is finished, Labor leader Luke Foley said. The new WestConnex M4 toll — due to be introduced this week after an initial grace period — was put at $3.75 when announced in 2012 but is much higher due to inflation.

And in just five years’ time, the opposition argues, people from Western Sydney will be paying at least $5.54 for the small M4 widening section.

It is built into the road’s contract that the toll will rise by 4 per cent or CPI, whichever is greater, annually until 2040. Australia’s CPI — or inflation rate — was just 1.9 per cent in 2016-17.
NSW Labor Party Leader Luke Foley has warned of massive toll increases.

“This is nothing less than a tax on Western Sydney motorists that will see regular road users paying an additional $2000 a year in tolls,” Mr Foley said.   

“It’s a triple whammy for Western Sydney motorists — new tolls on untolled roads; toll increases well above the rate of inflation and tolls right out until the 2060s. Sydneysiders have already paid for this road — that’s why Labor lifted the tolls seven years ago.” 



The opposition has made no secret of its intention to exploit cost-of-living issues in NSW in the lead-up to the 2019 state election, including on road tolls. This is despite Labor having not committed to taking any tolls off motorways and Mr Foley committing in The Daily Telegraph earlier this year to complete WestConnex.



The maximum capped toll per trip for the entire WestConnex will be $8.60, using today’s figures, but each individual leg will not be much less than that when the motorway is complete. For example, using today’s figures, a trip on the new M5 will cost $6.19, and the M4-M5 link $6.50.


A spokeswoman for WestConnex Minister Stuart Ayres compared the $8.60 cap to the $22 it took for someone to travel from Western Sydney via the M7, M2 Lane Cove Tunnel and Harbour Bridge.

“This is Fake Foley at his best — opposing a toll he plans to keep. Western Sydney simply can’t trust him,” Mr Ayres said.

Be nice if pay went up with inflation instead of backwards under this rabble

I wonder which state government will be the first to sell off the pavements?? (because privatization is only ever good you know).

Toll to walk along the footpath anyone??

stunspore wrote on Aug 16^th, 2017 at 11:57am:


Won't change when the bastards are voted out, either... suddenly there will be no way to get out of the bind that all this has put the State in.   You can't nationalise the roads without paying these 'investors' billions (only 'business' purchase in the world where the seller guarantees more than full compensation for failure in any way); the cash will be long gone and the QANGOs and other costly structures to feed the mates will be in place and (shock, horror) we can't do without those!! ... so the tolls will remain and rise and rise, and the  workers of the West and the business they work for will continue to take the hits from the NEED for higher and higher wages and salaries, and the economy will continue t decline like a falling lead balloon.

This is rapidly becoming The Toll Wall - beyond which nobody can afford to accept a job..... so poverty in the West will rise, and thus crime, and thus social destruction, and finally alienation will reach critical mass and the revolt will begin in earnest... all these petty criminals out there are Poverty's Foot Soldiers - they simply lack leadership... so when will a new Mafia arise to lead them?

Use it, contribute to the cost. simple.

And this applies to footpaths too?? I mean, haven't I already, thru various taxes, already paid for it?

You want me to pay for something I've already paid tax rates etc to be provided?

What is the difference between putting a toll on the road, or a toll on the footpath??
What is your argument that would apply to toll roads, and not toll footpaths?

And are not both basic state infrastructure, and have I not already paid thru various taxes and charges and rates??

thecuriousmail wrote on Aug 16^th, 2017 at 8:54pm:


Footpaths are mostly local council, not State infrastructure.  Paid for mostly by land or business owners.

The argument for tolls is that they enable more infrastructure to be built than without them and they free up tax dollars that can be spent on other services, hospitals and schools for example.

Fares on public transport, buses, trains, ferries, are all just tolls. Do you also balk at paying fares? The fares contribute to the upkeep and the establishment of the public transport. 

Swagman wrote on Aug 16^th, 2017 at 9:32pm:


Really?  So if all this extra infrastructure is being built - why does it all cost so much, and then continue to rise, and every such piece of infrastructure cause more cost rises?

It seems your premise is a failure....

Then you can add in the 'need' to pay for excessive boards, executives, their staff and all their perks, the 'director's' fees and perks, and the 'need' to now pay shareholders, and the escalating cost to commuting workers and thus their pay levels and thus their 'inability to compete with Indians on $10 a week' and thus growing un- and under-employment and consequent Downfall of living standards and economic competitiveness WITHIN AUSTRALIA ... and your entire concept is doomed to economic disaster... and will last for a short time until it brings about the collapse of the entire economy.

But stoopid is as stoopid does, as they allus say down in Green Bow....