school holidays over, page-7

I had a look at the article and some of the comments. It appears that there are a lot of misinformed people out there and some whiners too. Many people think that:

- Government taxes were used to pay for the tunnel.
- The taxes on fuel and registration should have paid for the tunnel.
- The tunnel is too expensive and should be 50% of the full toll.
- The tunnel should be boycotted.

Luckily there were a few smart people making comments but the majority were the slow Queenslanders.

As painful as it is to see the money leave your wallet when paying the toll, it is more fair than a tax on fuel which unfairly charges everyone regardless of whether they use the tunnel or not.

I am OK with my investment in RCY, actually I am topping up at these levels, why?

1) People will complain and resist change, the usage numbers will increase, albeit slowly but they will increase, look at any and every other toll road project.
2) The project was delivered early and under budget, 2 major positives.
3) RCY has reserves to handle moderate shortfalls in revenue.
4) Massive debt is as per expectations or could be lower (due to lower interest rates during the global financial crisis).
5) Brisbane experiences one of Australias highest population growth rates, public transport is quite poor and the road infrastructure is poor, projects like the CLEM7 tunnel will be greatly appreciated and widely used when the traffic volume increases year on year. Look at it this way, what competition does the tunnel have?
6) RCY has a total concession period of 45 years, we still have plenty of time to go to make our money back.

I dont have time to check all the facts (sorry), so I am happy to be corrected.