The New South Wales government plans to make permanent a $60 weekly cap for tolls on Sydney’s roads, with the premier saying it could be funded by reintroducing two-way tolling on the Harbour Bridge.
The cap – under which drivers can claim up to $340 a week back from the government after spending $60 per vehicle – started in early 2024 and was due to expire at the end of this year.
But on Tuesday, the premier, Chris Minns, said it would continue beyond that date.
“We want to extend it permanently,” he told 2GB radio. “We’re going to keep it. We can’t get rid of it. It’s a massive cost-of-living relief measure for literally hundreds of thousands of people who live in western Sydney.
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“Without a $60 a week toll cap, they’ll be paying full market rates to use toll roads in Sydney. It’s hugely, hugely onerous for them.”
A 2024 independent report found Sydney drivers were spending $2.5bn annually on tolls in Sydney, with the greatest effect on residents of the western suburbs.
Minns said the government was considering two-way tolling on state-owned assets, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and tunnel, and the yet-to-be completed Western Harbour Tunnel and M6 motorway, to pay for making the cap permanent.
“It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but we think it’s the fairest thing to do when you consider that a lot of the communities that will use the Harbour Bridge have access to public transport,” the premier said.
“Many communities in western Sydney and the Central Coast just don’t have anything like that.”
Minns said two-way tolling on state-owned toll roads was likely to align with the completion of the Western Harbour Tunnel, which is scheduled for 2028.
He said the cap was costing the government about $200m a year. The government originally allocated $561m over two years, although motorists lost the right to about $100m in unclaimed rebates in June.
“We want people using the toll roads,” the premier said. “That’s why they were built as an effective option.”
The opposition leader, Mark Speakman, said that introducing tolls in both directions on the Harbour Bridge would constitute a broken election promise for Minns, who campaigned on no new tolls on existing roads, including on the bridge, when in opposition.
“Labor had a choice to cut waste, or new tolls. They chose new tolls and more broken promises,” Speakman said on Tuesday.
The government’s negotiations with tolling Goliath Transurban to unify all tolling under a newly created agency, NSW Motorways, continue.
The transport minister, John Graham, has said an update on negotiations will be given before the end of the year.
The Harbour Bridge was tolled in both directions from its opening in 1932, before northbound tolling ended in 1970. Tolling’s original purpose, to pay off the bridge’s construction, was completed in 1988.
