Transurban chief financial officer Michelle Jablko will succeed Scott Charlton as CEO in October.Credit:Eamon Gallagher
Trips on CityLink were still about 5 per cent below 2019 levels,Transurban said,suggesting Melbourne traffic has not fully recovered from blanket lockdowns during the pandemic and changing commuter habits from the shift to flexible work.
“There’s still a little bit of recovery in Victoria that’s coming through,” the company’s chief executive,Scott Charlton,said.
Transurban will soon add another tollway in Melbourne after finishing boring for the new West Gate Tunnel. Disruptive road-widening work on the West Gate Freeway to connect the tunnel,a headache for motorists,is nearly complete,it said.
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Most of Australia’s 21 toll roads – except for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Tunnel,and Melbourne’s EastLink – are controlled by the tollway giant. The company’s bid to buy Horizon Roads,which operates EastLink,is under scrutiny by the competition watchdog,which has concerns about it acquiring another Victorian motorway and gaining a monopoly.
“We are engaging with the[Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] to address the matters raised,” Charlton said.
Fees for CityLink are linked to inflation and rose by 4.25 per cent over the year,providing investors with a guaranteed indexed income at a time when the pandemic’s global supply chain disruption and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have spurred global inflation.