I used to live in Sydney. It was crowded but there was some sanity to arrangements. Today I was back briefly for just a few hours and had to navigate around all of the new toll roads. In Melbourne, this is an easy affair. You ring up and buy a day pass. Then you are good to go. In Sydney, you get a list of half a dozen different numbers that you need to call depending upon which freeway you happen to be on. What is more, most of those numbers are only operational from 9am – 5pm Monday – Friday. Good grief. How did they get to this state of affairs? When it comes to economies of scale in toll roads, one thing is true: standardise on the method of payment. In Melbourne that means a single eTag system and operator. In Sydney, there is a mixture of eTag, ePass, luck and cash. Someone, somewhere in government had to sign off on that. You know what should happen to them.
In the end, I was able to access some web-sites — having avoided tolls to reach my destination — and buy passage back to the airport. Of course, had I realised what I was in for, I should have just taken my eTag from Melbourne. Apparently, that would work just fine, on all roads in Sydney!
Core Economics 
They all have to roam with each other in Sydney as well – so it wouldn’t matter which one you actually bought. But bringing the e-tag from Melbourne is the easiest way.
As an aside, I assume that once East Link opens Melbourne will have two alternative systems as well (although again with roaming).
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One annoyance is you still have to slow down to 80 km/h while using an eTag.
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It is a lot less complicated than it initially appears, but doesn’t mean it isn’t madness.
Sydney also surely boasts the roads with some of the least adhered to speed limits in the country, thanks to the persistence of unrealistic limits on roads like the M7 and M2.
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As an aside, I assume that once East Link opens Melbourne will have two alternative systems as well (although again with roaming).
Yet another excellent point against the use of PPPs. Gross additional inefficiency. VicRoads should be 100% in charge of tolling technology. So they can toll other roads in the future, and use all of the excellent data to plan better.
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Everyone knows people don’t move from one part of Sydney to another – it’s all about staying in the east / north / west / south / shire / northern beaches – and never moving!
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