VIC: CityLink hit by another tolling system bungle

AAP General News (Australia)
08-13-1999
VIC: CityLink hit by another tolling system bungle

MELBOURNE, Aug 13 AAP - Melbourne's troubled $1.8 billion CityLink tollway project has been
hit by revelations of another bungle over its tolling system.

State opposition transport spokesman Peter Batchelor said a confidential internal report
conducted by the CityLink telephone call centre last April found 1,000 cases where consumers
had been wrongly billed for tollway trips on the e-tag system.

In one case, an Essendon man's credit card was billed for the e-tag of another motorist and
it took six months for the situation to be identified and rectified.

"They said there are a thousand other cases where customers' accounts cannot be located and
there are similar types of problems," Mr Batchelor told Melbourne Radio 3AW.

"And they expect thousands more to become evident once the tollway opens," he said.

He is calling for an independent watchdog to be established to conduct an audit of all
accounts.

Melbourne motorists are set to get an extra week of toll-free travel on CityLink, with
tolls not being imposed until August 29, two weeks after the $2 billion tollway opens on
Sunday, the Herald Sun newspaper reported today.

AAP st/imc/arb/de

KEYWORD: CITYLINK DAYLEAD

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