Transurban On Track

Shareholders in toll road group Transurban (TCL) yesterday heard the company has had a strong start to 2015-16.

The meeting was told that a sharp jump in average daily traffic on Transurban’s Sydney and Brisbane toll roads has helped boost September quarter revenue 17%.

Statutory toll revenue increased to $427 million from $365 million in the prior corresponding period, while proportional toll revenue, the company’s preferred measure, rose 18.9% to $446 million.

The company’s Sydney roads remained its strongest performers, with proportional toll revenue rising 16% to $187 million thanks to a 10.3% increase in average daily traffic to 622,000 trips.

Revenue from the upgraded Hills M2 motorway jumped more than 15% to $62 million, while revenue from the recently expanded M5 South West Motorway surged 20.1% to $58 million.

Revenue on Sydney’s M7 increased by 24.3%, partly due to higher truck tolls for the quarter. The truck toll will be triple that for cars by January 2017.

Trips across Transurban’s Brisbane roads were up 10.6% to 332,000, thanks in part to Legacy Way performing above expectations in its first September quarter.

Melbourne toll revenue rose a more sedate 6.7% to $153 million and traffic volumes were cut by by an incident near the CityLink road, which closed a ramp for seven days.

Revenue from Transurban’s US operations increased by 257% to $US28 million ($A38.23 million) mostly due to the 95 Express Lanes working through the September quarter for the first time.

Transburban securities eased half a per cent to $9.81.

About Glenn Dyer

Glenn Dyer has been a finance journalist and TV producer for more than 40 years. He has worked at Maxwell Newton Publications, Queensland Newspapers, AAP, The Australian Financial Review, The Nine Network and Crikey.

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