Sydney’s Electronic Toll Tags Compared
Posted by Rodney.Campbell at September 9th, 2006
Electronic tolling tags are currently used on most major Australian toll roads, bridges and tunnels. In Sydney the toll network includes the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Tunnel, M1 Eastern Distributor, M2 Hills Motorway, M4 Western Motorway, M5 South West Motorway, M7 Westlink, the Cross City Tunnel and the soon to be opened Lane Cove Tunnel . Outside of Sydney some major toll roads include Melbourne's City Link and Brisbane's Gateway Bridge and Logan Motorway.
The E-Tag (electronic tag) is a small device which is usually attached to the front windscreen of the vehicle. As the vehicle passes by one of the tolling points of the road, bridge or tunnel, the tag will receive and transmit a signal to the tolling equipment and will beep. This will deduct the appropriate toll amount from your toll account.
There are five different E-Tags you can sign up for and motorists can use any of them on all Australian toll roads:
- E-Toll (RTA)
- E-Way (Interlink Roads)
- Beep Tag (Cross City Motorway)
- Express Tag (Tollaust)
- Roam e-TAG & e-PASS (Transurban)
Before the release of the Roam e-Tag (and the opening of the Westlink M7) the NRMA calculated the costs for each of the first four tags and found the E-Toll and E-way tags are the best value for frequent users, while the E-Toll is best for infrequent users.
Either the NSW RTA E-Toll or the Roam e-TAG are probably the best E-Tags to get as they can have no extra fees (other than the cost of the tolls) and no fees for tag inactivity. You can also get statements posted every quarter for free.
With most of these E-Tags (including the RTA E-Toll and Roam e-TAG) if you want to avoid or limit monthly tag and admin fees you will need to setup an account with:
- an initial pre-paid balance (generally in the order of $50 to $80)
- an automatic payment and top up option (when your balance drops below a certain value - generally around $20 - and it tops up a certyain amount - generally in the order of $50 to $80)
- and you will need to pay the upfront refundable tag depost (generally in the order of $40).
I think electronic vehicle tagging is a great idea and a strong case can be made for variable roadspace pricing from economic theory as a means of dealing with traffic congestion, in fact it may even be the only practical means of dealing with it (see some discussion here). Anyhow the hassle I have with the current Sydney systems is that they don’t accommodate the occassional user (like me) that well. I might only use the bridge, the tunnel or one of the major tollways four or five times a year. So the upfront cost of investing in tags and accounts is excessive for the utilisation, and I suppose amortising the “trnasaction cost” of set up across my small number actual trips all make it seem an unprofitable activity. After checking out a couple of the schemes I gave up searching again. Thanks for highlighting the Roam E-Tag system as it sounds like it may meet my requirements.
I am driving through Sydney via the M7 and also through Brisbane and back over the 3 weeks between sep-Oct. Does your etoll do both etolls????