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.
