- Herald Sun
- January 03, 2012
Motorists will have to pay more to use CityLink. Picture: Mark Smith Herald Sun
MOTORISTS face yet another toll rise this week on CityLink, with a Herald Sun investigation showing the cost of a 24-hour pass has risen almost 100 per cent since the road opened - double the rate of inflation.
Under the latest toll increase, drivers will have to pay $13.80 for a 24 hour pass, a 97 per cent increase on when the road opened in 2000.
Transurban, the company that runs CityLink, made $434.6 million from the tollway in the last financial year, raking in almost $1.2 million a day from Victorian motorists.
The company's contract with the Victorian Government allows it to increase tolls by the rate of inflation or 4.5 per cent, whichever is greater.
The inflation rate has only been above 4.5 per cent once since the road opened, with tolls having risen 48 times in that time.
National Road Users Association spokesman Michael Long said there was nothing road users could do about the rising tolls. Here is the first government shill peddling the ‘you can’t beat city hall line'
"Short of rewriting the contract there's not a lot you can do," he said.
"Unfortunately, it's part of the original contract with the Government.
"The real question is, does the motorist get a reasonable run on the road, is there a lot of congestion and do they get value for money?” Is that the real question? of course not, the real question is ‘how can the Victorian Government lease something that it never owned to begin with?'
He said unfortunately major roads would not be built without tolls but road owners needed to ensure they finished roadworks quickly and with minimal disruption to drivers. Bullshit shill. How much are they paying you to tell lies?
Transurban's 2011 annual report said its profits from CityLink tolls had jumped more than 11 per cent in the past year and average daily use had increased by almost 9 per cent.
It said much of the increase came after roadworks on the Southern Link finished in October 2010.
RACV public policy manager Brian Negus said a privately backed road with tolls was built faster than a government-funded road. Government shill Brian Negus also tried to imply that passenger death rates somehow should be factored in to driver behaviour theories that he peddles.
"To imagine Melbourne without CityLink we'd have permanent gridlock across the city area, especially the south side and major routes in and out of the city," Mr Negus said. Did the government pay you to spew this drivel Brian?
"Public private partnerships and tolls are the only way Melburnians are going to see key pieces of infrastructure delivered. Stop lying Brian.
"If you factor in the benefits that Victorians have received over the 12 years now they would outweigh the tolls people have had to pay.” Interesting that Brian made this ludicrous claim without mentioning ONE example.
CityLink tolls are allowed to rise every three months for 30 years.
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