Growing calls to eliminate automatic price increases on tolls as Australia’s urban workers become more reliant on long commutes

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Drivers in Australia’s biggest three cities are painfully aware of the cost of using toll roads. Now a leading industry figure says there should be a shale-up of how those charges are set. The former director of Transurban Tony Shepherd has told Four Corners that toll companies should not be allowed to impose automatic price increases above inflation of new roads.

Transcript

00:00Edwina Hyler used to travel to work on Sydney's toll roads, but when the amount she was paying

00:08each week hit $150 in December last year, she quit her job and found a new one closer

00:14to home and away from the tolls.

00:17It just wasn't feasible anymore to pay that kind of money in tolls just to get to work.

00:22Like I'd have to work a day just to pay tolls.

00:26It's a feeling familiar to drivers in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, where toll prices

00:31have surged during the cost of living crisis.

00:34That's because they're pegged to inflation, and so Transurban earned a record $3.5 billion

00:40in revenue last financial year, operating 18 of Australia's 22 toll roads.

00:46Their business is not there for the public good, it's there to make money.

00:51Even in times of low inflation, most of its tolls are guaranteed to rise by 4% a year.

00:57A giant of the industry and former Transurban director Tony Sheppard says that deal should

01:03be off the table for future toll roads.

01:05Well I think in new projects I think we can eliminate it.

01:08Now we put it in originally because the risks were just so enormous and that was what we

01:13needed to get people to be prepared to invest.

01:16Transurban declined an interview and did not respond to questions, but in a statement said

01:21Toll prices in Australia, and how much they rise, have always been determined by state

01:27or local governments, as have the charges associated with toll notices and late payments.

01:32The NSW government has promised to slash toll prices in Sydney, and is now negotiating a

01:38new tolling model with Transurban.

01:40If we don't reform tolls, Sydney will become a more congested place to live, it'll be less

01:46productive than it should be, and it'll have a real impact on people's lives, particularly

01:51in Sydney's outer suburbs.

01:53Since Edwina Hyland changed jobs, the state government's introduced a two year, $60 per

01:58week cap on tolls.

01:59But when it ends, drivers like her may be back to paying full price.

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