CityLink

[raskolnikov]

I just had to pay $12 so I can go and pick my family up at the airport for Christmas on Friday. What a rip off. We already pay taxes. Why should we have to pay to use a road? CityLink sucks.

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

I just had to pay $12 so I can go and pick my family up at the airport for Christmas on Friday. What a rip off. We already pay taxes. Why should we have to pay to use a road? CityLink sucks.

CityLink has already paid itself off, so why are we still paying a toll? Another revenue raising scheme is all.

 

[Murray]

I just had to pay $12 so I can go and pick my family up at the airport for Christmas on Friday. What a rip off. We already pay taxes. Why should we have to pay to use a road? CityLink sucks.

Then don't use it.

No one is holding a gun to your head

 

[thesting]

Then don't use it.

No one is holding a gun to your head

Not as simple as that. Those types of roads are built to take pressure off the smaller roads that people would otherwise use. It is a massive bugbear of mine that these roads are private. They are part of basic infrastructure for the City. If it is going to be such a finacial burden to construct it, why not toll it untill the building costs plus whatever interst may be owed and then remove the toll. I cannot stand the fact that roads are privatised!!

 

[raskolnikov]

Then don't use it.

No one is holding a gun to your head

I live in Leongatha. If I didn't use CityLink it would take me at least an hour more each way. And you didn't answer my question. Why should we pay to use it when we already pay taxes and, as Daddy 4 Eyes said, it's already paid itself off?

 

[BomberGal]

Then don't use private cars. Better for the environment. The last thing we need is more traffic.

On the topic though, my parents got a $12 notice for driving one block on Exhibition St in the CBD. Since when?

 

[FIGJAM]

I live in Leongatha. If I didn't use CityLink it would take me at least an hour more each way.

So what you are saying is that it's worth the 12 bucks...

 

[FIGJAM]

On the topic though, my parents got a $12 notice for driving one block on Exhibition St in the CBD. Since when?

Exhibition Street extension running between Flinders and Swan Streets.

It is on Batman Avenue, but there are two of them, so they just call the north one Exhibition.

I have a tag, so it would only cost a buck or so. Taxis go over that one for free.

 

[raskolnikov]

So what you are saying is that it's worth the 12 bucks...

No, I'm saying I pay my taxes and should be able to use the road for free.

 

[BomberGal]

Exhibition Street extension running between Flinders and Swan Streets.

It is on Batman Avenue, but there are two of them, so they just call the north one Exhibition.

I have a tag, so it would only cost a buck or so. Taxis go over that one for free.

Interesting. My parents are from the country and almost never drive in the city (maybe once or twice a year), they had no idea. And neither did I. Drove to Exhibition St to pick me up from somewhere and got hit with that...hey at least it wasn't much. I now understand why my friends always tell me to plan carefully if we have to drive through the CBD because they don't have tags...!

 

[FIGJAM]

No, I'm saying I pay my taxes and should be able to use the road for free.

Same goes for trains then?

Transurban aren't much different to Connex or Yarra Trams really. They have expenses in running it and looking after breakdowns and faults in the road, and even potential engeneering faults with the tunnels (eg. when it srpung a leak).

The reality is that it's an expensive bit of road. To some it is a rip off, but to others it is a godsend.

For me, I drive a lot to properties and say I am billing $150 per hour, if I am avoiding CityLink tolls, say between the start of the Burnley Tunnel to Burnley Street, which amounts to $3.54, and I elect to take City Road to Swan Street to get to Burnley Street, then I may have added an extra 15 minutes to my time, meaning I have lost about ten times the fee!

Imagine this on a scale for Toll Holdings, and you will see why profits can be derived from what is Melbourne's premier strip of bitumen.

For mine, if there are people avoiding it, then that is a positive for the road, especially during peak periods.

I do concede that to you the odd airport run plus parking, you may feel ripped off because you aren't getting anything out of it (other than the reduced time, which even you have subconsciously already conceded was worth the payment...and potentially irritating rellies). If you are early to the airport, you are probably dropping more on parking, which IMO, is a far greater rip off than what is an exceptional piece of infrastructure.

 

[raskolnikov]

I do concede that to you the odd airport run plus parking, you may feel ripped off because you aren't getting anything out of it (other than the reduced time, which even you have subconsciously already conceded was worth the payment...and potentially irritating rellies). If you are early to the airport, you are probably dropping more on parking, which IMO, is a far greater rip off than what is an exceptional piece of infrastructure.

I had to travel to the airport during peak hour traffic and it was snail pace from about Toorak road to Footscray road so it wasn't that exceptional. It may have been better to go via Bell St anyway. The plane was delayed when I got there and I ended up paying $20 for parking at the airport so an expensive trip all round.

 

[1jasonoz]

No, I'm saying I pay my taxes and should be able to use the road for free.

You pay your taxes to the government, the government doesn't own Citylink, Transurban does-you want to use their road, you pay them.

 

[raskolnikov]

You pay your taxes to the government, the government doesn't own Citylink, Transurban does-you want to use their road, you pay them.

Then they should improve their service if they expect people to pay. Close to an hour between Toorak Rd and Footscray Rd is ridiculous.

 

[1jasonoz]

Then they should improve their service if they expect people to pay. Close to an hour between Toorak Rd and Footscray Rd is ridiculous.

Transurban are about to spend a billion dollars putting an extra lane on both sides of the Monash and the Westgate freeway.

 

[Tormented Tiger]

I just had to pay $12 so I can go and pick my family up at the "airport" for Christmas on Friday. What a rip off. We already pay taxes. Why should we have to pay to use a road? CityLink sucks.

You didn't use the parking at the airport or you'd be squealing twice as much.

 

[raskolnikov]

You didn't use the parking at the airport or you'd be squealing twice as much.

Yeah I did actually. I arrived on time to find the flight had been delayed for two hours. I went to Virgin Blue's customer service to ask if they could pay for the parking because when I rang I was informed that the plane was on time. They said no.

 

[skilts]

Serves you right for living in Leongatha. Have you tried the Pakenham By-pass yet? It's brilliant.

Re: Citylink. The question which should be asked is why they didn't get the road right in the first place. Why are they adding more lanes when it was only constructed less than ten years ago? The same could also be asked about the Bena By-pass of which I'm sure you're aware. To spend $40M on that to replace a two-lane highway with another two-lane highway is ludicrous.

As with the Monash, they'll have to upgrade that road again within ten years. It's all about state governments trying to make heroes of themselves by balancing the books, rather than building the infrastructure we need. This may also be an argument against tolls on Citylink. What the hell are we paying taxes for, if not for things such as roads? Also, it was inevitable that the people of Victoria's interests at some stage wouldn't coincide with those of Transurban - thus the fine paid by the people of Victoria to Transurban, so Wurundjeri Way could be constructed.

 

[flamethrower]

The Citylink fees are consistent will other tollways and turnpikes around the world, and way cheaper in some cases. I don't have a problem with them.

I do have a major problem with whoever designed the interchanges between Citylink and other roads. The Tullamarine/Calder was a joke that seems to have been fixed at taxpayers expense. The Monash and feeder roads are a nightmare during peak periods (ie almost 24hrs a day).

But the worst of all is the stretch of the Westgate between the tunnels and the bridge - multiple lanes of traffic trying to negotiate the on and off ramps at the Bolte Bridge and Montague Street is a recipe for disaster. 10% of the traffic driving at the posted speed limit of 80kph and 90% doing closer to 100kph.