australia

Strong economic growth in its Australian homeland saw Transurban increase profits by 98% in the year ended June 30 2011. Toll revenue rose 10% to $1,153m and costs went up by less than 1%. EBITDA (earnings before interest taxes depreciation, amortization) were A$719m, up 13%.

A class action law suit is being organized against Aecom the traffic and revenue forecaster on behalf of investors who lost their money when the Clem7 or North-South toll tunnel went broke in Brisbane, Australia. Organizers of the law suit Andrew Charles of IMF Australia Ltd, a litigation financing firm, and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers says the claim is based on two complaints:

A banking syndicate in Australia last week pulled the plug on RiverCity Motorway (RCM) owners of the CLEM7 toll tunnel after just eleven months of operation, adding to other failures of Australian city toll tunnels - the Cross City and Lane Cove tunnels in Sydney.

Transurban is buying the Lane Cove Tunnel concession on the eastern end of their M2 Hills Motorway in the northern suburbs of Sydney. The company is paying A$630.5m (US$570m) for the twin tube tunnel 3.6km (2.25mi) toll facility that carries 63.5k vehicles/day. It has been in bankruptcy, operated by receivers for the lenders since January.

Sydney's first tollroad in the automobile era, the M4 heading west out of Sydney is no more. As of midnight Feb 15 the 20 year concession held by State Wide Roads expired, the road was turned over to the state of New South Wales (NSW), and toll collection ended.

An average of 100k vehicles use the six lane expressway each day.

Transurban the Melbourne Australia-based toller reports 2009 second half (H2) toll revenue of A$416m, a 6% increase on 2008H2. Based on A$=90cUS that's $840m/yr. Operating costs were reduced 3.9% to an annual $183m. Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization (EBITDA) grew 12.4% to an annual rate of $601m.

The Associated Press reports from Australia: "Officials said panic and the freight-train speed of the walls of flames probably accounted for the unusually high death toll."

Since when were freight trains a metaphor for speed? What's this AAR propaganda?

Freight trains are loud certainly, but fast?

Bush in most english-speaking countries is low vegetation - the synonyms being shrub, brush or scrub - nothing more than 10 or 15 ft (3 to 5m) in height. So when Americans read of bushfires in Australia they usually think of small stuff burning. Bush, brush. They think of California coast "bRushfires" with the R. Wikipedia obviously written by an American or an Englishman follows this misleading usage.

Sydney Harbour Bridge, an Australian icon and one of the oldest and largest toll operations in Australia went cashless Sunday morning (2009-01-11) about 8am local time. Tolls were collected by hand for the last time from a motorist who was presented with a framed certificate attesting to him being the last person to pay a cash toll to a toll collector on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The great global financial fiasco has its fun side. Mrs Fang He, apparently an emigrant Chinese woman filed with the Australian Stock Exchange November 5 that she had become, under the rules of trading, a "substantial holder" of stock in BrisConnections, a recently formed toll concession in Brisbane, Australia's third city. She bought 32.3 million shares ('units' there) or 8.6% of the equity of BrisConnections.