The toll

Eight of Australia’s ten most expensive tolls are in Sydney. They include the WestConnex M4 at A$10.38, the Eastern Distributor at A$10.16, and NorthConnex at A$10.15. Melbourne’s CityLink holds the title of Australia’s most expensive single toll at up to A$12.25 per trip — but this reflects its longer route from the airport to the city centre, providing better value per kilometre than Sydney’s shorter tunnels.

The most expensive toll per kilometre in Australia is the Go Between Bridge in Brisbane, at A$13.50 per kilometre. The bridge is 300 metres long. This toll charges more per kilometre than almost any comparable infrastructure in the world.

All Sydney tolls except the Sydney Harbour Bridge rose faster than inflation over the period studied. The Harbour Bridge is the exception that proves the rule: it is government-owned.

An EBITDA margin of 75 per cent is not an airline margin or a supermarket margin. It is the margin of a monopoly infrastructure company that collects inflation-linked fees from captive users who have no alternative. Morningstar has rated Transurban a ‘wide moat’ stock — meaning its competitive advantages are deep and durable. The moat is not operational excellence or technological advantage. It is the government-granted concession that makes each road a legal monopoly.

Most Transurban concession agreements include a toll escalation clause that raises tolls automatically every year. The standard formula is: tolls rise by CPI or a fixed rate (commonly 4 per cent), whichever is higher. In years when inflation is high, tolls rise with it. In years when inflation is low, the fixed rate floor means tolls still rise at 4 per cent — faster than prices.

For WestConnex specifically, the concession agreement allows tolls to rise by 4 per cent or CPI — whichever is greater — until 2040, then at CPI until 2060. That means the WestConnex tolls that already rose 128 per cent between 2017 and 2025 are contractually guaranteed to continue rising for another 34 years beyond that.

A Sydney motorist who drives WestConnex in 2026 is paying for a contract negotiated in 2018 — that will still be charging their children in 2060.

The WestConnex deal with the NSW government allows it to raise tolls by 4% or the inflation rate — whichever is higher — a year. Profit margins for WestConnex last financial year are nearly 80%, even higher for some of its older toll roads.AFR, cited in Green Left analysis

France, Germany, the Netherlands and most of Scandinavia have extensive motorway networks. Most urban roads and ring roads in those countries do not charge per use. Tolling in Europe is typically applied to specific long-distance routes — the French autoroutes, the German Autobahn (commercial vehicles only), the UK’s Dartford Crossing — not to the routine daily commute through urban arterials.

The United States has toll roads, but large parts of the interstate highway system — built with federal funding — remain free to use. The model of tolling every major urban motorway, at rates that rise faster than wages, is not common in comparable countries.

The reason Australia ended up here is the privatisation model: governments needed private capital for expensive infrastructure, offered long concession agreements with guaranteed returns, and created the conditions for a monopoly operator to accumulate the entire network. That is the subject of Article 2.

Eight of Australia’s 10 most expensive tolls are in Sydney. The WestConnex M4 toll rose 128 per cent from 2017 to 2025 — approximately four times faster than CPI. A typical two-toll Sydney commuter pays A$100 or more per week, over A$5,000 per year. All Sydney tolls except the government-owned Harbour Bridge rose faster than inflation.

Transurban’s FY25 EBITDA margin: 75.1 per cent — the margin of a monopoly with no competition and inflation-linked pricing. WestConnex tolls are contractually guaranteed to rise until 2060.

These roads were built because Australians needed them. They were funded with public money, public debt, and the sale of other public assets. They are now owned by a private company with a 75 per cent profit margin and a 35-year guarantee on rising returns.