Tollway System Can't Discount
The Age
Tuesday March 6, 2001
City Link's owner said yesterday its tolling computer was incapable of calculating discounts to compensate customers for times when the tollway was not fully operational.
Transurban managing director Kim Edwards said the company never expected it might need to offer discounted tolls for a less-than-perfect system.
His comments followed a seven-day closure of the Burnley tunnel last month because of leaks.
Mr Edwards said the computer system would need some code changes to allow for discounted tolls, but this could not be done until the road's designer and builder, the Transfield-Obayashi Joint Venture, had formally delivered the system to Transurban.
The company would change the codes as soon as the system was delivered. He conceded that Transurban had not foreseen ``turning it on and off for two or three-hour periods where we get a certain degradation of service".
Mr Edwards said Transurban would not offer discount tolls while the Burnley tunnel was being repaired because a full service was being offered.
One lane of the tunnel will stay closed for up to six weeks for repairs. At the weekend two lanes were closed while another leak was fixed. On Wednesday night the tunnel will be completely closed from 9pm to 5am for repairs.
Releasing City Link's revenue and traffic data for February, Mr Edwards said the number of vehicles using the tunnel had dropped since it reopened, with an average of 37,000 vehicles using the tunnel daily, compared with 40,000 before the leaks.
Transurban suffered a dramatic drop in transactions (the number of times a toll is collected under a tolling gantry) in February because of the Burnley tunnel's closure and because outbound lanes of the Monash Freeway were made toll-free at the time.
Overall, transactions in February on the southern link - which includes the Burnley tunnel - dropped by 13.7 per cent from January and rose by 8.6 per cent on the western link.
Transurban's 1996 prospectus forecasts a weekday average of 617,000 transactions daily on City Link. By the end of February there was an average of 596,000 transactions.
Mr Edwards said there were 200,000 fewer transactions each day as a result of the Burnley tunnel closure.
Figures for traffic on the Bolte Bridge are about 30 per cent below expectations. Transurban is suing the State Government for nearly $36million, claiming that a competing state road is taking traffic from the bridge.
Transurban hopes to pay its first distribution to investors by the end of the year despite reporting higher-than-expected costs and traffic volumes below forecasts on key sections of the tollway.
The results were in line with expectations allowing for the late opening of the Burnley tun-nel.
BUSINESS 1: Higher costs, lower volumes
© 2001 The Age