These are Australia’s most expensive toll roads

Picture: iStock

If you live in one of the densely populated cities along Australia’s east coast, you likely pay your fair share of tolls every year in the effort to shorten your regular commute.

Though hybrid, work-from-home life after the pandemic has reduced travel costs for some Aussies, tolls remain an unavoidable expense for a majority of drivers in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

According to new data from insurance comparison site iSelect, Melbourne’s CityLink was once again crowned as the country’s most expensive toll, with motorists paying $12.25 per trip along the 22km arterial.

However, the iSelect data did not account for the new West Gate Tunnel in Melbourne, which officially opened on Sunday. The new road will see drivers pay $10.63 – the second-highest toll in the country – if they're travelling between 7:00am and 9:00am on a weekday. The fee encompasses the $4.09 flat rate in addition to an extra $6.54 peak morning time fee.

Though Melbourne's CityLink took home the unenviable most expensive crown, New South Wales has the highest proportion of tolled roads in the country, with approximately 37.5 per cent – or 120km – of the state’s motorway network requiring toll fees. The data showed NSW had eight of the 10 most expensive toll roads.

Based on the iSelect report, NSW’s most expensive toll fees range from $8.80 per trip (on the WestConnex M8 Motorway) to $10.36 for motorists travelling on the WestConnex M4 Motorway, with the arterial recording the largest year-on-year average price increase at 12.31 per cent.

For reference, one trip along the M4 in 2017 cost drivers $4.56. Fast-forward eight years later and the price increased by a whopping 127 per cent to $10.38.

Global road toll conglomerate Transurban owns and operates 11 tolls in Sydney – as well as nine of the 10 most expensive tolls in the country – with the capital city’s 'toll revenue contribution' equating to $149 million last year.

“Around 77 per cent of our customers spend less than $10 a week on tolls," a Transurban spokesperson said.

They said Melbourne's CityLink – the most profitable toll road in the world, with the arterial raking in over $13 billion since it opened in 2000 – has saved drivers significant time, despite the capital city's growing population.

“In Melbourne, customers continue to experience travel savings of up to 30 minutes on trips using the CityLink and have done so consistently for more than 15 years, even as Melbourne's population has grown by around 1.3 million people in that time,” the spokesperson told Drive.

“Customers in Sydney travelling from Parramatta to the Sydney CBD, for example, experience similar travel time savings, despite the city's population growing by nearly one million people in the last 10 years."

While Melbourne's CityLink was crowned the country's most expensive toll road, Sydney is home to eight of the 10 most expensive roads in the country. Picture: iStock

However, the NSW Government recently announced it will permanently keep the $60 weekly toll cap – introduced as a trial in January 2024 – amid policy reforms "that put the motorist first and no more privatisation”.

The weekly restriction will see NSW motorists pay a weekly maximum of $60 on tolls – or up to $400 per tag or licence plate linked to their toll account – with the government also placing an annual $5000 limit.

Some eligible drivers can also claim toll compensation, and according to the NSW Government, more than $211.4 million has been returned to drivers' wallets since January 2024.

As part of its policy overhaul, the NSW Government said it's in negotiations with private toll road concessionaires to scrap administration fees on toll notices from mid-2026.

The state authority said in the 2024–2025 financial year, 46 million toll notices – totalling $618 million in administration fees – were issued "in relation to unpaid tolls on the Sydney toll road network".

Crucially, unnamed private toll road concessionaires also agreed to return any additional toll revenue generated by the relief program to the NSW Government, preventing these companies from benefiting from increased traffic due to the toll cap.

According to the Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government, Jihad Dib, the permanent weekly toll cap aims to provide relief for those hit hardest.

“Making the $60 toll cap permanent provides certainty and fairness to those who rely on toll roads for travel. The $60 toll cap continues to benefit regular toll road users across the state and, in particular, Western Sydney by ensuring there is relief for those who are hit hardest by tolls," Minister Dib said in a media statement.

The NSW Government recently announced it will permanently cap tolls on state roads at $60 a week for motorists. Picture: iStock

Experts said Australia’s toll roads are expensive due to a range of factors, including fixed-price modelling, inflation, indexation rates and the need for long-term contracts.

Professor David Hensher, the founding director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, said NSW's soaring toll prices were a product of decade-long contracts approved by the NSW Government.

“The [toll cost] problem started when each piece of road was agreed to as a public/private partnership [between the state and other conglomerates], and politicians imposed a toll with a 4 per cent indexation,” he told Drive.

“The consequences of that, whether it was a competitive or monopoly model, the outcome more or less guarantees you some pretty generous revenue.”

Further worsening matters is that the 4 per cent indexation rate is coupled with fixed toll prices negotiated years ago.

“There’s never a general discussion [about toll prices] because it’s all based on fixed prices and indexation. So, every six months, they’ll hike it up 4 per cent regardless of inflation,” Professor Hensher explained.

Experts said NSW's soaring toll costs are a product of previous contract negotiations between state authorities and private companies. Picture: iStock

For reference, according to Linkt, Melbourne’s CityLink will see a total 4.25 per cent fixed rate increase between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2029, which equates to a 1.045 per cent rate increase every quarter.

However, toll contracts aren't black-and-white. According to Professor Allan Fels – who co-led a 2024 government-funded independent review of NSW's toll system – these contracts require decade-long terms to achieve the required return on investment.

“A complication is that the [NSW] government is locked into long-term contracts. [However] toll contracts need to be long-term as they involve a heavy upfront investment and their recovery over quite a long period of years,” Professor Fels told Drive.

“In my report, I questioned whether the chosen system is optimal. The present system involves concessionaires being paid by motorists for the use of toll roads.

“There is something to be said for an alternative system under which the government collects and keeps the tolls [revenues], and uses the money to meet the costs of building and operating toll roads by operators."

Asked if the current toll system could lead to declining toll prices, the founding director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies said it's highly unlikely.

“It'll continue to rise because, as I said, there are these [contract] agreements all the while they have their 20, 30-year-long concessions. [Toll prices] were agreed to way back in the beginning [of the contract negotiations] and at different times with 4 per cent indexation,” Professor Hensher said.

“It's not gonna be dropped back unless Transurban has some sort of social conscience.”

Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.

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