Macquarie says traffic "subdued" in Sept quarter but toll revenues up modestly on 2007

Weak global conditions, specially in the US and Britain are blamed for what Macquarie  - the reporting entity being Macquarie Infrastructure Management Limited - calls "subdued traffic results" in the September quarter. Even Macquarie's largest North American investment 30% of 407ETR in Toronto has traffic as measured by vehicle-km traveled below the same quarter last year, though only slightly - 1.1%. Daily trips are holding up but trip length is down. No revenue data is available yet, but probably indicates low single digit increases to the region of $500m (C$530m @C$1.00=95c) annualized.

Macquarie's most dismal result is M6Toll in Britain with traffic down 12% SQ08/SQ07. 100% owned its traffic is down 12% overall, nearly 17% at weekends, 11% weekdays. A strong toll increase of 12.5% at the mainline plaza from $6.80 to $7.65 (4pd to 4.50pd) for cars is part of the explanation. But Macquarie says weak economic conditions and reduced discretionary travel - as seen in weekend traffic - is a major explanation. Revenue is flat at $106m annualized (@1pd=$1.70)

In the US, Indiana Toll Road commuter traffic on the western barrier section is strongly down over last year - from 105.2k/day to 80.9k or 23%. Ticket traffic on the long trip tolling stretch to Ohio is down nearly 2% from 29.5k to 29.0k. Traffic and revenue numbers include the two day period mid-Sept when tolls were suspended at the request of the state to attract traffic from flooded untolled roads. ITRCC was compensated by the state for the uncollected tolls.

With toll increases annualized revenue is running 10.2% higher SQ08/SQ07 at $179m/yr vs $162m/yr last year.

Chicago Skyway traffic was down 6.1% from 55k/day to 51.6k/day, SQ08/SQ07. Economic conditions, closure for construction of I-65, a feeder to the Skyway, and improvements to flow on the free alternates Kingery and Borman Expressway are cited as factors. However thanks to major toll increases revenue is running at an annual $71m, vs $58m.

South Bay Expressway in San Diego is doing 26.1k transactions/day and garnering toll revenue at the rate of $21m/year, but since it opened in Nov 2007 there is no quarter-a-year-ago comparison, though Macquarie says traffic has been hit by the slowdown in housing and in cross border trade with Mexico.

Westlink M7 the new western peripheral tollroad in Sydney Australia in which Macquarie has 50% ownership continues to do well despite toll rate increases with an a 6.5% increase in vehicle-km tolled and in trips in the Sept quarter 2008 vs Sept Q 2007.  Revenue is up 11% to an annualized $117m (A$181m @$A1.00=65c)

Macquarie has a 20.4% interest in Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhon (APRR) but the Sept Q data is not yet available.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-10-12