[Greens-Media] FW: MEDIA RELEASE: 'Greens Modelling Shows WestConnex Tolls Will Have to be $26 Just to Break Even: Has $600 million annual black hole' (Greens NSW MP Dr Mehreen Faruqi MLC)

[Mehreen Faruqi]

Media Release
27.11.14
Greens Modelling Shows WestConnex Tolls Will Have to be $26 Just to Break Even: Has $600 million annual black hole
Greens NSW MP and Spokesperson for Roads and Transport has released revenue modelling showing that even on very generous assumptions of traffic numbers and lower than average private sector expectations of return, the WestConnex toll cap will have to be at least $26, almost triple the cap promised by the Government ($9.60 for cars in 2023 dollars - calculated from $7.35 in 2013 dollars), just to break even. Under the current toll cap, the modelling suggests that when fully completed in 2023, WestConnex has a more than half a billion dollar black hole per year which will reach 4.6 billion by 2029.  Dr Mehreen Faruqi is a civil and environmental engineer.

Dr Faruqi said:
"Greens modelling has shown that with the promised Government toll cap, WestConnex has an annual half-billion dollar black hole which will reach more than $4.5 billion by 2029.

"Motorists could be hit with a toll cap of $26, almost three times what the Government has said will be the maximum.

"Even under very generous conditions, such as all vehicles paying the maximum toll and low rates for private sector return, the modelling suggests that the WestConnex toll road is at the precipice of a financial cliff.

"These figures confirm what infrastructure financing experts have been quietly saying for some time, that the numbers on WestConnex just don't add up.

"The reality is, no private sector investor is going to touch the WestConnex with a ten foot pole unless the Government guarantees to cover the more than half-billion dollar loss each year.

"It is very clear that, if built, the WestConnex will go the way of the Lane Cove Tunnel and the Cross City Tunnel, and magnified several times over.

"The Lane Cove Tunnel and Cross City Tunnel failed with losses just a fraction of what WestConnex is facing.

"The Government has been obsessively hiding any information on the business case or cost benefit analysis on the WestConnex toll road, and the Greens modelling shows why. There is at least a half a billion dollars annual black hole to just break even, even after taxpayers have tipped in billions.

"Half a billion dollars every year to fill the Westconnex black hole will come at the expense of public services including hospitals and schools.

"The modelling also suggests that the WestConnex tollway makes money on the re-tolling of the M4, but loses money on other sections, especially the St Peters to Parramatta Road tunnel, which raises speculation about whether those sections will be built at all. This will gridlock Sydney for decades to come.

"The community already knew that Westconnex will not solve transport problems and it will increase pollution and congestion. Now we also know that there is no economic case for it either. Yet this government is pushing ahead with its addiction to motorways.

"If the Government has alternative numbers they must release them and hold the project up to public scrutiny", Dr Faruqi concluded.

Media contact: Matt Hilton 9230 2625 / 0423 106 247
http://m.afr.com/p/national/westconnex_will_be_disaster_greens_439XKQYfgIblvchZANq2MO
Tolling Figures and Assumptions: www.mehreenfaruqi.org.au/westconnextolls<http://www.mehreenfaruqi.org.au/westconnextolls>