Sydney Toll Roads - increase in tolls

[Robin]

Have never been on a toll road and never will!!!

Dicko o1, we will never meet, I'm surrounded by road tolls.

[Dicko1]

Dicko o1, we will never meet, I'm surrounded by road tolls.

Feel sorry for you. Toll roads are just a shining example of politicians incompetence and greed...

[Jasonmc73]

Feel sorry for you. Toll roads are just a shining example of politicians incompetence and greed...

Greed how they sold them to someone else!!

Incompetence in my opinion only would be A completely understated event in this instance

[Robin]

Feel sorry for you. Toll roads are just a shining example of politicians incompetence and greed...

Spot on Dicko 1.

[old Jack]

In Adelaide we only ever had 1 Toll road and that operated between 1841 and 1847.
The historic Toll Gate building and gate is well preserved as a reminded to all those that travel up the modern South Eastern Freeway.

http://sahistoryhub.com.au/places/old-toll-house

OJ.

[spot01]

In Adelaide we only ever had 1 Toll road and that operated between 1841 and 1847.
The historic Toll Gate building and gate is well preserved as a reminded to all those that travel up the modern South Eastern Freeway.

http://sahistoryhub.com.au/places/old-toll-house

OJ.

Thanks OJ - I had forgotten about that one - never had the dis-pleasure of paying a toll there!
However, I would argue we do have a toll road in SA - the ferry to KI charges a very large "toll" to travel on what should be deemed part of the national highway - unlike some other ferry services that are government subsidised, this one is not (since the government ended the Troubridge/Island Seaway service many years ago & handed the licence to a monopoly private operator who has turned into a huge corporation at our expense!)

[old Jack]

Thanks OJ - I had forgotten about that one - never had the dis-pleasure of paying a toll there!
However, I would argue we do have a toll road in SA - the ferry to KI charges a very large "toll" to travel on what should be deemed part of the national highway - unlike some other ferry services that are government subsidised, this one is not (since the government ended the Troubridge/Island Seaway service many years ago & handed the licence to a monopoly private operator who has turned into a huge corporation at our expense!)

Ha, don't get me started on the failure of privatisation of once owned public utilities.
Both sides of government have been shortsighted in selling off public assets and we will never recover from these decisions.

OJ.

[Mundy55]

Road infrastructure costs money and has to be paid for. So, you either pay for it by tolls or through your taxes. Why should someone in Broken Hill, for example, pay for a road that only some people in Sydney get to use? Tolls mean that those who use the road, pay for the road, which to me is reasonable.

[Pajshomoneroguntero]

Because a proportion of my taxes would go to funding whatever infrastructure is needed in Broken Hill I suppose. I’m not overly fussed by the need for the toll just the apparent need to milk more out of the public to feed some company’s profits.

The question I find I’m asking myself when I drive (usually slowly) past a roadworks sign telling me how many billions is spent on the next few kays, is whether that figure represents value for money? It quite often seems a ludicrous sum of money for some earthworks, pre-fab concrete, and bitumen.

[spot01]

Road infrastructure costs money and has to be paid for. So, you either pay for it by tolls or through your taxes. Why should someone in Broken Hill, for example, pay for a road that only some people in Sydney get to use? Tolls mean that those who use the road, pay for the road, which to me is reasonable.

The old way is a combination of rego fees, fuel taxes, tolls, general taxation, etc., all of which are fairly blunt instruments as they don't take into account people's actual driving habits (except for tolls).
The future should replace all these with a single road user charge, calculated using info including vehicle type/weight, distance, location, time of day, etc. We have the technology to do this now and it would be much fairer. It would also reduce traffic congestion, as lower fees would encourage off peak driving, choosing less congested routes, etc.
We have been using this method successfully on the Interstate Defined Rail Network for over 20 years.
All we need is visionary governments to implement it...................

[Dicko1]

Road infrastructure costs money and has to be paid for. So, you either pay for it by tolls or through your taxes. Why should someone in Broken Hill, for example, pay for a road that only some people in Sydney get to use? Tolls mean that those who use the road, pay for the road, which to me is reasonable.

Wrong. Does this mean I get my tax money back because I don't use airports, drink capital city water and don't drive on 99% of Australia's roads? All revenue from road tax and fuel excise is supposed to be for road infrastructure and forward planning....less than 30% is used. Over 70% goes into consolidated revenue...Politicians are just grubs that have no interest in the community. Its all about greed and control.

[Jasonmc73]

Road infrastructure costs money and has to be paid for. So, you either pay for it by tolls or through your taxes. Why should someone in Broken Hill, for example, pay for a road that only some people in Sydney get to use? Tolls mean that those who use the road, pay for the road, which to me is reasonable.

I think you should look into who owns the toll collection points & why they own them???

They own them to make profits out of us, private international company own the toll roads, it is for profits that they own them, not to benefit road users

Transurban do not own the roads for charitable reasons, we were sold out once again.

& all those feeder roads onto tollways, who pays for them

So on this occasion I will agree to disagree with you

Transurban also lobby our clever people running the show with "congestion busting" practical solutions on infrstructure the governemnt should build to funnel even more paying customers to their toll booths! Although it ends in those customers paying for the privilage of sitting jammed up in traffic on the very expensive roads waiting for their turn to drive through the pay points & now wella they can pay to tow their trailers as well!

It is A fantastic business model I must say

You are driving on roads for profits to private company & they just worked out to make even more, end of story.

https://7news.com.au/news/traffic/transurban-reveals-how-much-it-earns-from-its-tolls-in-sydney-c-387391

https://www.3aw.com.au/transurban-take-a-profit-from-melbournes-weekend-congestion/

[Dicko1]

I think you should look into who owns the toll collection points & why they own them???

They own them to make profits out of us, private international company own the toll roads, it is for profits that they own them, not to benefit road users

Transurban do not own the roads for charitable reasons, we were sold out once again.

& all those feeder roads onto tollways, who pays for them

So on this occasion I will agree to disagree with you

Transurban also lobby our clever people running the show with "congestion busting" practical solutions on infrstructure the governemnt should build to funnel even more paying customers to their toll booths! Although it ends in those customers paying for the privilage of sitting jammed up in traffic on the very expensive roads waiting for their turn to drive through the pay points & now wella they can pay to tow their trailers as well!

It is A fantastic business model I must say

You are driving on roads for profits to private company & they just worked out to make even more, end of story.

https://7news.com.au/news/traffic/transurban-reveals-how-much-it-earns-from-its-tolls-in-sydney-c-387391

https://www.3aw.com.au/transurban-ta...nd-congestion/

You don't have to be Einstein to know that the public are getting screwed big time by councils, state gov and federal govt,s.

[Jasonmc73]

You don't have to be Einstein to know that the public are getting screwed big time by councils, state gov and federal govt,s.

& the other myth Transurban pay for the infrastrcuture

https://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/Projects/Name/G/Gateway-Motorway-North-Nudgee-to-Bracken-Ridge.aspx

Um nah.

Gateway motorway QLD as example see link above

The project was jointly funded with $914.18 million from the Australian Government and $228.54 million from the State Government on a 80:20 split.

I never listened much at school but just an observation, you don't have to be real clever to be A politician thats only interested in the next election.

[Mundy55]

Yes, we can agree to disagree. Carping on about politicians is a favourite in Aussie whinging culture.

I agree the user pays principle is not uniformly practised by governments and there are many examples of postage stamp pricing.

But there are many services governments have to pay for which don't raise revenue themselves. So its raise taxes one way or another. Road users are an easy target. Responsible governments have practical limits to their borrowings without causing other problems.

We whinged about Labor doing nothing infrastructure-wise for 20years they were in NSW and when we get a government that does something (eg North Connex, Metro, et) we whinge again. We need to grow up.