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View Full Version : ANOTHER BANKRUPT TUNNEL COMPANY



Bigbjorn
19th February 2013, 04:57 PM
Well, here's another one. The Airport Link toll road and tunnel company has just filed bankruptcy. It owes more than the facility is worth and financiers have refused to assist. Usage is one third of estimates and has been steadily declining since the tolls commenced.

politics removed...

Ralph1Malph
19th February 2013, 05:59 PM
On an up note.:p
Tunnels are rarely filled in after being built.:D
We may therefore have a free tunnel (almost).:o
The next buyer will get a bargain so won't need to charge exorb tolls.:cool:

Ralph

Pedro_The_Swift
19th February 2013, 06:02 PM
just buy the thing and take the tolls off.

wheres the money coming from?
who cares.
how about QLD actually BUYS some infrasctructure???

sheerluck
19th February 2013, 06:07 PM
Not unexpected. I feel a little sorry for the investors who believed the bull**** prospectus with expected traffic volumes.

The fundamental point is that Aussies dislike paying to use roads that they feel should already be included as part of rego.

Cobber
19th February 2013, 06:18 PM
The next buyer will get a bargain so won't need to charge exorb tolls.:cool:I'll give them a tenner for it - it's ten dollars more than what they have got by the sounds of it :D

Mick_Marsh
19th February 2013, 06:34 PM
I used to happily use toll roads. I used the Wesgate Bridge many times.
I would go up to the toll booth and pay the fee. Easy.
Now I have to drive off the freeway for fifteen minutes to find a toll kiosk/ATM and that only covers me for half the road (two different companies).
Stuff that.
Now I avoid using these troublesome thoroughfares. I rarely have the opportunity to use them anyway.

Hoges
19th February 2013, 06:44 PM
I use it to go to the airport occasionally and also for testing the P38.... because so few vehicles use it and it's paved the road with sound absorbent bitumen, it's a great test track to pick up various noises especially when you drive about a metre from the wall and listen for reflected sounds... :eek::wasntme::D

Homestar
19th February 2013, 06:56 PM
I use both Citylink and Eastlink almost every day for work. Eastlink is great, as no one uses it much...:D

Citylink over the Bolte bridge in the morning is a travesty, and they shouldn't be able to charge for that...

I avoid them like the plague in my own vehicles...

redrovertdi
19th February 2013, 08:28 PM
I use the tunnel/s when im pressed for time only, if they were 1/2 the current price i would use them all the time, sometimes i use the gateway bridges 4x a day depending on the work and the only other option is a long way round so its not an option and i just have to pay.
I think if they lowered the tunnel tolls they would get the volume and make money.
Richard

wardy1
19th February 2013, 08:41 PM
I used to happily use toll roads. I used the Wesgate Bridge many times.
I would go up to the toll booth and pay the fee. Easy.
Now I have to drive off the freeway for fifteen minutes to find a toll kiosk/ATM and that only covers me for half the road (two different companies).
Stuff that.
Now I avoid using these troublesome thoroughfares. I rarely have the opportunity to use them anyway.

Hey Mick,
If you have an Etag, you can use all of the toll roads in Oz and only pay the Etag price, which is lower than the 'day use' or single use price. You only need to keep enough credit on the tag to cover your use so as an occasional user, you can top it up whenever you need to using your online banking.
We just have to accept that these days, if we want these roads/tunnels, it is a user pays just like it is in most countries.... do you all think the famous Autobahns in Germany are free? If you want to take 3 hours to get to work in Japan, don't pay tolls, if you want to get to work in an hour, you pay.
From my perspective, I'll pay $6-8 for Eastlink and save myself an hour of my day avoiding the tolls.
Either pay tolls, or pay more in tax, rego or something else. Since everyone I talk to reckons that $700 is a lot to register and CTP their cars, I don't think they'd react well to having an extra $100 added for roads they don't use.

Mick_Marsh
19th February 2013, 09:08 PM
Hey Mick,
If you have an Etag, you can use all of the toll roads in Oz and only pay the Etag price, which is lower than the 'day use' or single use price. You only need to keep enough credit on the tag to cover your use so as an occasional user, you can top it up whenever you need to using your online banking.
We just have to accept that these days, if we want these roads/tunnels, it is a user pays just like it is in most countries.... do you all think the famous Autobahns in Germany are free? If you want to take 3 hours to get to work in Japan, don't pay tolls, if you want to get to work in an hour, you pay.
From my perspective, I'll pay $6-8 for Eastlink and save myself an hour of my day avoiding the tolls.
Either pay tolls, or pay more in tax, rego or something else. Since everyone I talk to reckons that $700 is a lot to register and CTP their cars, I don't think they'd react well to having an extra $100 added for roads they don't use.
The thing is, where the toll roads are, I don't have a need to use them that often. I don't have much to do in the east.
When Citylink first started (Transurban I think it was back then) I was going to get an eTag. I read the fine print. They wanted to keep a minimum balance of $20 and dip into my bank account whenever they saw fit. And (here's the bit that I wasn't prepared to accept) If I hadn't used the tollway in a year, Transurban were going to debit the account $20 for the privilege of having an account with them. True. That was in the info pack Transurban sent to me way back in 1998-99.
In it's twelve or thirteen years of operation I have only found it necessary to use it four times, and that was following friends.
It's just not my side of town nor does it go anywhere I want to go.

lt8x7
19th February 2013, 09:54 PM
All the famous Autobahns in Germany ARE free ...



And I will be driving on them again in May this year.

Lotz-A-Landies
19th February 2013, 10:09 PM
On an up note.:p
Tunnels are rarely filled in after being built.:D
We may therefore have a free tunnel (almost).:o
The next buyer will get a bargain so won't need to charge exorb tolls.:cool:

RalphRalph

The next owner may get a bargain, but as sure as night follows day, the tolls won't be going down, likely ever! Look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge built in the 1930's paid off in the 1970s and the toll keeps going up.

For a resident of the Hills District, around Cherrybrook who works between the city and the Airport, it's a $26 a day return trip in bumper to bumper traffic, just for tunnel, bridge and motorway tolls.

Diana

slug_burner
19th February 2013, 10:53 PM
Tolls are just a means by which to abrogate the responsibility of the state to provide infrastructure and a means by which to hand a company an earner for 30 years or more.

I did not mind the idea of some peppercorn toll to assist the state to pay off the debt. I think the Westgate bridge here in Melbourne had a 20 cent toll which was eventually abolished by one of the Labor governments, John Cain I think!

It might be meant to be user pays but we are already paying the state for the privilege of having a vehicle registered. When you have more than one vehicle like some LR owners with a tourer and another daily driver, they get more money than the value you can extract/you can possibly use.

The last time I was on the Autobahn it was free.

Mick_Marsh
20th February 2013, 06:59 PM
T I think the Westgate bridge here in Melbourne had a 20 cent toll which was eventually abolished by one of the Labor governments, John Cain I think!
It was 60c when I was using it regularly and I remember it going up to 80c.
It created regular employment and made money for the government.
Oh, and it was simple to use.

tonic
20th February 2013, 07:29 PM
On an up note.:p
Tunnels are rarely filled in after being built.:D
We may therefore have a free tunnel (almost).:o

Ralph

Exactly, at least we get a tunnel and road, unlike the Gold Coast Tram System, errr Light Rail. I prefer tram, if it looks like dog doo and smells like dog doo etc. When it is finished it will have blocked traffic through Southport and Surfers, killed off parking sent shop keepers broke and will be a complete failure that will not only cost us to build but also cost us to rip up.:mad: