There’s not a lot to suggest the monopoly is serving motorists particularly well. A single car trip from Greenslopes to Brisbane Airport,using both Clem7 and Airport Link,would cost $12.50 – $6.12 for the Clem7 section and $6.38 for Airport Link.

Despite it being a single trip,motorists are slugged twice at the full rate. Frequent flyer miles be damned.

The whole point of road tunnels is to act as detours for through-traffic,easing demand – and,subsequently,congestion – on surface roads. At least in theory.

Price enough people out of the option,though,and it becomes a wasted exercise.

In 2017,then-Transurban Queensland group general manager Wes Ballantine told this masthead thecompany was open to the idea of “bundling” tolls to reduce these single-trip price blow-outs. Six years later,there has been no sign of such innovation.

So,Brisbane motorists can rightly ask themselves if they feel any benefit whatsoever to having a single company control so many roads.

This is where the negotiation skills (or otherwise) of the Queensland government can come into play.

Should Transurban be awarded the rights to the Gympie Road bypass tunnel,one would hope the government would take the opportunity to force Transurban’s hand.

You want a new Queensland cash cow? Then you had better bundle your tolls. It’s time to look after the motorists who line your pockets.

After all,there could bemuch better uses for those tunnel boring machines that have become so commonplace in Brisbane over the past couple of decades.