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Highway 407 Revenue

My ideal scenario would be for the prov to buy the 407's lease, give it to GTTA with a mandate to levy tolls on all 400 series in GGH.
 
BTW, I was just browsing that wikipedia entry, and found a rather incredible claim:

The highway opened in 1997, and highway cost roughly $1.6 billion. The published $1.6 billion dollar cost does not take into account more than $100 billion dollars spent since the early 1970s acquiring the land that it sits on. (Ontario Government Hansard - Wednesday 21 October 1998 - 1520, 1550. Estimates range from $104-107 billion dollars total taxpayer investment as of March 31, 1998)
Click to expand...

No way the land cost a hundred billion dollars. Anyone know anything about this? At the very least, that should be corrected.
 
Probably $100 million to buy the land. Either way, that's what you get when you use Wikipedia:D
 
That wikipedia article also says that the current owners paid the government $3.1 billion to purchase the highway. If it cost $1.6 billion to build, then the government made a $1.7 billion profit on it's sale.
At the same time, earning $60 million a year on a $3.1 billion investment is really bad for the current owners.

These numbers all seem rather dubious.
 
Jonny5 said:
That wikipedia article also says that the current owners paid the government $3.1 billion to purchase the highway. If it cost $1.6 billion to build, then the government made a $1.7 billion profit on it's sale.
At the same time, earning $60 million a year on a $3.1 billion investment is really bad for the current owners.

These numbers all seem rather dubious.
Click to expand...

Not exactly,

That $1.6 billion came from the capital budget,meaning that money was borrowed, and we are still paying intrest on it,

When the highway was sold, the 3.1 billion went into one years operating (rather than the capital debt) budget so Harris could make it look like he balanced that years budget, while giving everyone a tax break that amounted to 3 bucks a week.

I did a College research paper on this, and I read that the company that bought the 407 was secretly willing to pay about twice what they did, but the tories only asked for enough to make it look like the budget was balanced


the highway was designed to be a toll highway from the begenning, but only until the cost of building it was paid off, and tolls where not going to be nearly as high as they are now,
 
the highway was designed to be a toll highway from the begenning, but only until the cost of building it was paid off, and tolls where not going to be nearly as high as they are now,
Click to expand...


true, the 407 really is rather fast. It would have created much more sprawl then it has now, if it was free....
 
RedRocket191 said:
Bottom line:

Highway 407 is turning a profit. That is profit that could be funding transit if circumstances were different...
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No, it could be funding the govt's general revenue account, which means your toll dollars would vanish, and by now the 407 would be full of potholes, with users asking where the money has gone. Instead, we've got a self-funding highway, in which all the money raised is used exclusively for the maintenance of the operation and sustainability (i.e. revenue and profit) of the operators. If it was still government owned, we'd still be paying tolls, but for little apparent benefit, so where's the down side here?
 
which means your toll dollars would vanish, and by now the 407 would be full of potholes,
Click to expand...

Show me a highway, free or not, full of potholes in the GTA.
 
Voltz said:
the highway was designed to be a toll highway from the begenning, but only until the cost of building it was paid off, and tolls where not going to be nearly as high as they are now,
Click to expand...
Considering that this was a Rae government project, I'd not believe everything they'd said. If Rae had won against Harris in the 1995 election, and Rae was faced with more of the economic challenges he's now using as an excuse for his poor premiership during his Federal campaigns, he would have likely given a sell-off of the 407 a serious look.
 
well the newer sections of the highways are rather well made.

once they resurface the highways more and more they will get better.

Case in point is the 401...
 
Ed007Toronto said:
Show me a highway, free or not, full of potholes in the GTA.
Click to expand...
I've just driven home from Kitchener along the 401 to Trafalgar Road, then south to the QEW and then to the Gardiner. The left lane on the east bound 401 was awful, with chucks of surface concrete missing, especially where the lines are painted and where the shoulder meets the lanes. Then when I got on the east bound QEW there was a near tiring ripping pot hole under the bridge of the 427. Through the entire drive I noted large cracks, pot holes and missing surfacing material on the highways, resulting in a bumpy, rough ride. Sure, they can blame it on the freeze-thaw cycle, but you don't see this on the 407, which is like driving on glass by comparison. Ontario's private-for-profit highway is certainly the best surface around. Honestly Ed, do you drive at all on the 400 series highways much?

Don't even get me started about the rural highways in Ontario, as some look like they're been to war, with mashed up, broken surfaces, with patched and vastly uneven tarmac. I've driven from Toronto to points north, such as Cochrane, Thunder Bay and the Soo, and those roads are a national embarrassment. Now, to be fair, Ontario's rural highways are MUCH better than New Brunswick's, but Ed wanted to know about potholes, so here you are.
 
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