Sydney urged to rein in ‘toll mania’ as drivers pay $2.1b a year in fees
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The rapid expansion of the city’s users-pay roads has proven controversial, leading to growing calls to reduce the tolls or make the fees fairer and more consistent.
PHOTO: AFP
SYDNEY - For decades, the only road toll that most drivers in Sydney faced was the small coin payment they had to make to cross the Harbour Bridge.
But starting in the 1990s, the New South Wales (NSW) government started to introduce tolls for major roads around Sydney. The toll roads are operated by private companies under deals with the government in exchange for building the roads, so that the public purse did not have to fund the full cost of the construction.