The trends of toll roads in Sydney are not new. Governor Lachlan Macquarie was the person who imposed first toll road in 1811 on the turnpike between Sydney and Parramatta – Parramatta Road. He granted himself an exclusion from paying. Other than him, everyone else faced fines for avoiding the toll.
The WestConnex is an Asphalt Contractors Driveway Services provider whose value is $16.8 billion has been argumentative for its traffic impacts, construction interruptions, and the compulsory acquisition of several homes. Due to these disturbances, a majority stake in WestConnex will be sold off to the highest bidder.
The decision to boost the sale of a 51% stake of the entire project in one swoop means that the government is forcing the bidders to finalize their price based on traffic forecasts to a larger extent.
This sale has prompted another controversy i.e., Transurban (one of the bidders for the motorway) owns the businesses for the bulk of the city’s toll roads. This publicly listed company has grown to become the overlord of Australia’s toll roads. The value of share price of this company has almost doubled as compared to others. Out of 99 km of toll roads in Sydney, 95 km are owned by Transurban.
From its beginnings as a ‘single purpose vehicle’ for Melbourne’s CityLink toll road, Transurban has grown to become an aspiring global infrastructure player. It owns almost every major Sydney toll road (including the Lane Cove Tunnel), the US Pocahontas Parkway in the state of Virginia and is building high-speed lanes on the beltway that surrounds Washington D.C.
Transurban’s knowledge of the city’s congestion issues will allow it to prevent from traffic challenges in conjunction with government, without loss of any value.
More than a quarter of the toll roads in Australia that is under the control of Transurban have been acquired out of receivership, for half the construction costs footed by the previous owners.
While the original investors in those toll roads lost their money and price and Transurban has benefited handsomely from snapping them up at fire-sale prices.
The growth rate of share price of Transurban is ultimate. At 2013, its share price value was $6. As the year passes, its value increased every time. Now presently at 2018, its share price value is $13.
There are three “formal” unsolicited proposals that were rejected by the state government between 2013 and 2015. These proposals were the duplicate of existing M5 East. M5 East is a project now taking place as a part of WestConnex. The main aim of M5 East is to take over the tolling service for WestConnex and and to lower the Eastern Distributor and Cross City Tunnel tolls to ease traffic while a light rail line is built in the heart of Sydney. Due to this reason, these proposals were rejected.
From some government sources, it is said that there was another Transurban proposal which was rejected. The proposal was to start a motorway to the northern beaches. This was rejected by the government in 2015 but Transurban denies having made such an unsolicited proposal.
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