Get ready for double-whammy charges with a two-way toll over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

By ANNA USHER

Lower north shore residents will be hit hard in the hip pocket if the Minns government imposes two-way tolls across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Labor is set to introduce the double whammy across Sydney’s harbour crossings, despite a pre-election promise not to launch new tolls on old roads to drop driver charges across the city’s motorway network.

Senior ministers have strongly indicated that two-way tolls will be introduced on the Bridge and Tunnel and the Eastern Distributor following the Tuesday release of the NSW Government’s independent toll review.

The review, overseen by former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Allan Fels, has recommended distanced-based tolls that gradually reduce the further motorists drive across Sydney’s 13 toll roads.

Under the plan, there would also be an additional “infrastructure charge” on some trips that benefit from expensive infrastructure components like ventilated tunnels and the Harbour Bridge.

Fels conceded that some motorists using the bridge would be worse off if changes were implemented, with the extra revenue used to cut prices elsewhere across Sydney.

He said on Tuesday that toll-road giants Transurban, who hold an effective monopoly on toll roads across Sydney, had indicated a willingness to help reform the system.

“Tolls need a big shake-up. We can’t wait until 2060 when contracts expire for that to happen – we need reform, and reform needs to put the interests of motorists first,” he said Tuesday.

“Sydney tolls are too high, too unfair and an ever-increasing burden on motorists,” Professor Fels said.

The push for a double toll comes despite Premier Minns declaring in 2021 that “going forward, there should be no more new tolls on existing roads”.

Roads Minister John Graham said the final report made a “strong case” for two-way charging, and it was fair to ask everyone to help resolve the inequity in the city’s patchwork of toll roads.

“If we’re going to have one set of tolls across Sydney, the principles that underlie it should be the same regardless of where you live. And that isn’t the case under the way the old tolling system works,” he said.

A consequence of increasing pricing on the Eastern Distributor and Harbour Tunnel would put extra pressure on adjacent roads in the eastern suburbs and lower north shore already “nearing capacity”, the final Fels report said.