The toll

In 2017, the toll to use the WestConnex M4 motorway in Sydney was A$4.56. In 2025, it is A$10.38. That is a 128 per cent increase in eight years. On this article’s calculation from ABS index numbers, Australian consumer prices rose approximately 29 per cent over the same period ¹⁵¹⁶. The toll rose more than four times faster than inflation.

This is not exceptional by Australian toll road standards. It is the norm. The WestConnex M4 is simply the fastest-rising toll in the country, increasing at an average of 12.3 per cent per year since 2015. Most major Sydney tolls rose faster than inflation over the same period. The exceptions are the roads the government still owns.

iSelect, a comparison site, estimates that a Sydney commuter who uses two or more toll roads each day can face weekly tolls of more than A$100 ². Paid every week of the year, that would be more than A$5,000 (this article's arithmetic: 52 weeks at A$100). For a household already facing mortgage stress, high grocery prices, and high energy bills, the toll is a fixed, compulsory cost that rises every year regardless of household income.

The company that owns these roads reported an EBITDA margin of 75.1 per cent for the year to June 2025. That is not a typo.

01Sydney: the toll capital of Australia

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. Morningstar says the moat is ‘underpinned by efficient scale and other competitive advantages in existing markets’, and that the core Australian roads ‘benefit from strong barriers to entry’ ⁴. Each road also runs under a government concession that sets how its tolls rise.

Update, 7 October 2026. Two references were corrected; no sentence in this article relied on either. Reference 11 described the iSelect toll analysis as saying the Cross City Tunnel and Lane Cove Tunnel "went bankrupt before Transurban absorbed them"; that page is a toll price analysis and does not carry that history, so the reference now describes what it does carry (the history is sourced in Article 3, "Transurban: the monopoly"). Reference 6, The Conversation analysis, now gives the article's correct address and says that its 34 cents figure was calculated for the 2018 sale of 51 per cent.

Correction, 7 October 2026. The opening and subtitle said Australian consumer prices rose "approximately 28 per cent" between 2017 and 2025, and reference 15 attributed that figure and the 128 per cent comparison to an ABS page. The ABS publishes the CPI index, not the comparison: the All groups index was 111.4 in the September quarter 2017 ¹⁶ and 143.6 in the September quarter 2025 ¹⁵, a rise of about 29 per cent. The opening, subtitle, summary and timeline now give 29 per cent and say it is this article's calculation from ABS index numbers; the fact box in "The rort" now names its source the same way. The toll still rose more than four times as fast.

Correction, 15 October 2026. After the Morningstar rating, this section said the moat is ‘not operational excellence or technological advantage’ but ‘the government-granted concession that makes each road a legal monopoly’, and reference 4 said the moat was derived from government-granted monopoly concessions. Morningstar does not say that. Its analysis says the moat is underpinned by efficient scale and other competitive advantages in existing markets, and that the core Australian roads benefit from strong barriers to entry ⁴. The passage and reference 4 now say so. Reference 3 paired Transurban’s reported proportional EBITDA of A$2,676 million with the 75.1 per cent margin; the margin is on Operating EBITDA of A$2,848 million over total proportional revenue of A$3,795 million, and the reference now says so. Reference 12 gave the FY24 margin as 73.1% while reference 3 gives 73.7%: 73.1% is the margin as first reported in August 2024, and 73.7% is the FY24 margin restated in the FY25 release; reference 12 now says so.

02The inflation linkage: tolls that rise automatically

Sydney's toll contracts include escalation clauses that raise tolls automatically. The Independent Toll Review's table of current tolls sets out each road's formula ¹⁷: CPI each quarter on the Westlink M7, the M5 South-West and the Cross City Tunnel; the greater of CPI and 1 per cent a quarter, about 4 per cent a year, on NorthConnex and the Hills M2; and the greater of CPI or 4 per cent a year on WestConnex. In years when inflation is high, tolls rise with it. In years when inflation is low, the floor means tolls on those roads still rise at about 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 until 2060, another 35 years beyond 2025.

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.

Correction, 7 October 2026. This section said the WestConnex tolls would keep rising for "another 34 years" beyond the 2017 to 2025 rise. The concession allows rises until 2060 ⁵, which is 35 years beyond 2025. It now says "until 2060, another 35 years beyond 2025".

Correction, 19 October 2026. This section said that most Transurban concession agreements raise tolls by CPI or a fixed rate, commonly 4 per cent, whichever is higher, and the summary said tolls on captive roads outpace prices. The Independent Toll Review's table of current tolls ¹⁷ shows the formula road by road: CPI each quarter on the Westlink M7, the M5 South-West and the Cross City Tunnel, the greater of CPI and 1 per cent a quarter on NorthConnex and the Hills M2, and the greater of CPI or 4 per cent a year on WestConnex, where in some years tolls have grown ahead of CPI. The section and summary now say that, and no longer say that Transurban concessions in general use a 4 per cent rate.

03The international comparison

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.

04The rort

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. iSelect estimates that a Sydney commuter using two or more toll roads each day can pay more than A$100 a week, more than A$5,000 over 52 weeks. 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 contract that lets WestConnex tolls keep rising until 2060.

If it’s a rort, we cover it.

Correction, 7 October 2026. This section said the owner had "a 35-year guarantee on rising returns". The concession lets WestConnex tolls rise until 2060 ⁵; it does not guarantee returns, and the term was given inconsistently across the article. It now says the contract lets WestConnex tolls keep rising until 2060.

Correction, 19 October 2026. The subtitle, the opening, this section, the key facts and the image said that a typical Sydney commuter who drives two tolled roads each way spends more than A$100 a week and over A$5,000 a year. The only source, iSelect ², says that commuters who use two or more of Sydney's toll roads each day can face weekly costs of more than A$100; it does not describe a typical commuter, each-way trips or an annual total. They now give iSelect's estimate, and the annual figure is marked as this article's arithmetic of 52 weeks at A$100.