WestConnex: New Sydney motorway to push toll to $11 per trip

Sydney: Motorists will pay as much as $11 a trip when the completed West Connex motorway opens, after the Liberal government decided to increase tolls on new Sydney motorways faster than the rate of inflation.The rate of increase means if WestConnex is built as planned in 2023, someone driving from Sydney’s outer north-west suburbs to the airport using the new road could pay more than $20 in each direction.When the state government released the tolling strategy for WestConnex in 2013, it said motorists would pay according to how far they travelled – like on the M7, which also has a cap of $7.46 a trip.As recently as November the Premier, Mike Baird, said the WestConnex toll “is expected to be along the lines of the M7 toll as we said previously”.But tolls on the WestConnex motorway will never be the same as the M7 and are likely to be increasingly more expensive. News of the steep toll increases is the latest challenge for the proponents of the motorway, already facing significant opposition from locals and sceptical urban planners.
Tolls on the existing M7 motorway increase only at the rate of inflation, currently just 1.3 per cent.
But tolls on the 33-kilometre WestConnex motorway – and the new nine-kilometre NorthConnex motorway in Sydney’s northern suburbs – will increase either at the inflation rate or at 4 per cent a year, whichever is higher.This means that when the entire WestConnex motorway is built in 2023 the trip cap will be $11.01 – or more if inflation breaches 1 per cent a quarter. If inflation hits the middle of the Reserve Bank’s 2-3 per cent target band, the trip cap on the M7 will be $9.30 when WestConnex is complete.
The detail about WestConnex’s rate of toll increase is included in a contract schedule for the first section of the motorway, a widening of the existing M4.
When that project is finished in 2017, motorists will pay about $4.58 for driving on the M4 between Parramatta and Concord – a trip that is currently free.
When the M5 East section of WestConnex is finished about 2019, motorists will pay about $6.09 to drive on it and a similar amount to drive on the existing M5 East – another trip that is currently free.The cost of driving on Sydney current toll roads increases at different rates. The two new motorways soon to be built, WestConnex and NorthConnex, will increase at the same rate as the M2 and Eastern Distributor. But the M5, Lane Cove Tunnel and M7 increase in line with inflation. The Cross City Tunnel used to rise 4 per cent a year but now increases 3 per cent a year.Asked about the rate of increase, the Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, said: “As recent reports are showing – if people find value in good infrastructure, importantly if it provides more home time and less travel time – they will likely use it.