> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://redflag.org.au/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Transportation in Sydney is highway robbery
- URL: https://redflag.org.au/article/transportation-in-sydney-is-highway-robbery/
- Published: 2026-08-26T07:57:12.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-26T07:57:12.000Z
- Author: Owen Marsden-Readford
- Tags: NSW

Sydneysiders pay, on average, [more than 15 percent of their income](https://www.aaa.asn.au/research-data/transport-affordability/?ref=redflag.org.au) just getting around the city week-to-week. It’s a scam that hits working-class residents hardest.

On one hand, there’s the broken public transport system. According to Deutsche Bank’s [*Mapping the World’s Prices* report](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-17/cost-of-living-cities-around-the-world/106929038?ref=redflag.org.au), which compares prices across 69 world cities, Sydney’s public transport is the second most expensive in the world, with residents paying up to $2,600 per year in fares. On top of that, the government pays billions to private companies that provide many of the services. The Greater Sydney Bus contract is worth nearly $8 billion, while a private contractor is being paid nearly $4 billion to operate the Metro. So workers pay twice to fund this corporate gravy train—first with their Opal card and again in taxes to fund the companies that profit from running the services.

Yet while costs have soared, the services have gotten worse. Private companies, for example, operate all bus services in the metro area. But the routes are often disrupted, with reduced services and poorer pay and conditions for drivers. The buses are often crowded, if they even show up. In 2023, the ABC [revealed](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-12/thousands-of-sydney-buses-cancelled-under-contract-rules/102213390?ref=redflag.org.au) that Sydney’s bus contractors were earning bonuses by cancelling thousands of services to meet “on time” targets. “Ghost buses”—ones scheduled to arrive but never do—are common.

The city’s outer suburbs are the least well-served. A 2024 [Bus Industry Taskforce report](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/22/sydney-transport-buses-western-sydney-worst-routes-data-report?ref=redflag.org.au) found that 235 bus routes failed to meet “minimum service standards”. Most of the routes are in western Sydney. The report said the government needed to invest $10 billion in the coming decades to fix the network.

It is no better for those driving their cars: Sydneysiders pay more than $1 billion in road tolls annually. The city’s thirteen major toll roads are often unavoidable. Transurban, the main company involved, is one of many corporate leeches growing fat off public assets. Many major Transurban toll roads feature locked-in annual price increases of 4 percent or the rate of inflation (whichever is higher), ensuring continuous price hikes for drivers. ​

The state Labor government introduced a $50-per-week toll cap in the latest budget, but it is inadequate. Drivers still pay up to $2,600 per year so that Transurban shareholders can enrich themselves. The cap also leaves the toll road racket untouched. Rather than ending the flow of money to Transurban, the government simply reimburses motorists after they have paid tolls out of pocket. The whole system is highway robbery.

​The first steps to solving the problems are abolishing road tolls, and bringing public transport back into public hands and making it free. Workers should not have to pay for the “privilege” of getting around our own city.

But these measures should only be the beginning. For decades, the city has been designed to make people dependent on cars. The destruction of Sydney’s extensive tram network in the 1950s was one part of this. But more cars and roads relative to trains and trams made congestion worse as the city expanded. A massive investment in public transport infrastructure is needed to reshape Sydney in the interests of working-class residents.