By Luke Costin in Sydney

Individual motorway tolls could be lower across Sydney but drivers would slugged fees both ways on the Harbour Bridge under a recommended “reset” of the city’s $123 billion toll burden.

The independent NSW Tolling Review interim report, released on Monday, called for a complete restructuring of the city’s network of 13 tollways, which cost drivers $2.5 billion a year.

New laws would put governments in the drivers’ seat when it comes to price setting, while costs would be shifted from working-class suburbs to those in the more affluent east and north under proposed changes.

Toll-relief schemes, offering regular users refunds each quarter, would also be a thing of the past.

“These schemes have historically had relatively low take-up rates and are not particularly well targeted to disadvantage,” the report says.

“Concessionaires (toll operators) benefit significantly from any extra traffic generated by relief measures but have no requirement to repay this benefit to government.”

The report, by former competition watchdog chief Allan Fels and economist David Cousins, finds many agreements – signed between the early 1990s and 2021 – had little room for change.

Pricing structures were virtually set in concrete, with changes in demand or technology over time not easily corrected.

Tolls were often priced mainly based on the perceived need to cover the operator’s costs rather than the need to manage traffic on the road network.

Under the Fels-Cousins restructure, a unified price structure with some subsidies would reduce prices for 44 per cent of drivers and leave it unchanged for another 30 per cent.

But there would be an end to “anomalous” one-way tolling benefiting some of those using the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Harbour Tunnel and Eastern Distributor.

That would help broaden the burden across the city with governments locked into a series of toll contracts running until 2060.

Drivers are set to be tolled about $123 billion in today’s dollars across the next 37 years, or an estimated $195 billion in nominal terms.

Roads Minister John Graham said the interim report confirmed what millions of drivers had long suspected.

“The toll contracts were designed with guaranteed financial returns to their owners and operators as top of mind before the need for an efficient and affordable network for those who use it,” he said.

“Drivers came last in that equation.”

Premier Chris Minns said the burden was hitting families who could least afford it.

“This isn’t fair,” he said.

“It’s putting a huge burden on Sydneysiders trying get to work, drop their kids at school and go about their lives.”

The full report is due to be released later in 2024.