Media release
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne
Following today's revelations from Professor Allan Fels, that the public will pay the cost of constructing WestConnex three times over in toll revenue to Transurban, Inner West Council is calling on this corporate monolith to stop profiteering and start helping to fix the Rozelle Interchange.
Since the opening of the Rozelle Interchange in December, Inner West Council has continually demanded that Transurban contribute to solving traffic congestion there by making their traffic data available to the community.
Transurban have refused to assist in any way to reduce the unprecedented congestion around the Interchange while making use of their contracts with the Government to prevent the release of travel time data on the privatised roads that they control.
"Now we know that Sydney motorists will be paying for the costs of WestConnex construction three times over. This makes the deal that Transurban landed with the previous NSW Government one of the great rorts in the history of Sydney.
"Transurban are sitting on their growing piles of gold like Montgomery Burns or Scrooge McDuck.
"Since the onset of the tsunami of traffic when the Rozelle Interchange opened, we've repeatedly called on Transurban to contribute to solving the problem. Their refusal to help in any way, or to release any data, shows that they just don't give a damn about the public.
"I call on Transurban CEO Michelle Jablko to transparently release all traffic data related to the Rozelle Interchange so that the public has an evidence base for what mitigations are needed.
"Their ongoing refusal to release this data, along with their unprecedented profiteering, means that Transurban is in danger of losing their social licence.
"Having a corporate monolith like Transurban profiteering indefinitely from our motorway network is something you'd expect to see in a tin-pot dictatorship, not a modern city like Sydney."
"Professor Fels' findings that toll free roads are becoming congested because of Transurban's stranglehold is playing out in real time on Victoria Road and City West link every day.
"It's time for Transurban to accept that they have an obligation to the public not just their shareholders."
