The NSW toll inquiry has narrowed in on the recently tolled M5 motorway
A New South Wales inquiry into its toll system has heard calls for recent toll charges on the M5 motorway to be dropped to stop trucks from using local roads.
Citizens from the Sydney suburb of Bexley have fronted the inquiry and asked for the previously free M5 tunnel to have its tolls removed as heavy vehicle movements in the area have quadrupled recently.
The NSW parliamentary inquiry into tolls is continuing to investigate the problems of Sydney’s increasing toll road network.
In 2020 the NSW government introduced tolls on the M5 corridor to coincide with the opening of the M8 motorway.
This recent toll has forced many trucks onto local roads, angering locals and businesses who today spoke to the inquiry.
Local Bexley residents like Angelo Elliott, who has owned the Forest Inn for 44 years but now has to reconfigure the hotel because of traffic noise and air pollution caused by trucks, expressed their dismay at the toll network.
“We hope they do something about it because it will probably kill us eventually,” Elliott says.
Further evidence tabled in the inquiry says that in 2015 local roads saw 610 trucks per day, but last year the roads saw 2695 heavy vehicles daily.
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Bexley chamber of commerce president Jeffrey Tullock says this is impacting local residents not just because of noise issues but also because of clearways put in place to slash street parking.
“The real solution is to have a close look at the tolls and I’ve already suggested a variable toll structure,” Tullock says.
“Perhaps consider having them abolished at the weekend or maybe late at night so people can have a good night’s sleep.”
In Sydney’s north-west drivers are being forced to use the Northconnex tunnel or risk being fined if they avoid the toll on the M5.