rivercity motorway opens tonight, page-15

Noticed the selldown started just prior to the release of the first days traffic numbers. Lets look for reasons why.

I drove through the tunnel last night just for a look and it was obvious to me that there were many others doing the same thing - exiting the tunnel ,doing a u-turn and driving back through again.Nice piece of work and the traffic flowed smoothly.But what about the numbers?

Grand total 74000app. passed through on one of the most publicized and anticipated openings I can remember.Highlighted by the fact that there were even times when there was so much congestion they were warning people to avoid using it.And remember it was free.

Now looking at the numbers that were forecast in the prospectus one might have reason to be a bit concerned.After the first month they were forecasting 60,000/day rising to 86,000/day after 18 months.So they beat their first months forecast on day one but when we look at say the Connect-East comparison it makes you wonder.CE projected usage of around 250,000/day in 2008.In their first week of free travel they achieved 275000/day.They too beat estimates and not just first months but estimates for the year.Unfortunately once the toll free period ended the numbers contracted to a dismal 116,000/day in the first month,less than 50% of the first weeks usage and well inside their projected ramp up estimates.

I know it's early days and we must give Clem a chance to prove itself but during this initial toll free period where curiosity will be drawing people in, whatever numbers are achieved will be as good as it gets for quite some time.The first question is will those numbers be good enough?The second reservation I have is how well this road will cope with the forecast 86,000 they hope to achieve.