The $2000-a-year answer to Sydney gridlock

A week after its opening, the Cross City Tunnel in Sydney is in danger of turning into a A$680 million ($735 million) white elephant.

After 3.3 million work hours and the excavation of almost 1 million tonnes of rock, the tunnel drilled to connect Darling Harbour and Rushcutters Bay has become the most loathed - and avoided - stretch of road in the city.

Despite allowing motorists to avoid 20 sets of traffic lights and reducing cross-city driving times from 20 minutes to two, the tunnel has been lambasted, boycotted and mocked by all and sundry.

After driving through the tunnel at rush hour last week, Sun-Herald columnist Peter Fitzsimons wrote: "I can't say that we were alone down there, but just about."

Studies estimate fewer than 20,000 cars a day used the tunnel in its first week, well below the 90,000 expected.

Maybe it's the cost. Traffic flows were to be speeded by an electronic toll system, with no need to stop to pay at toll booths.

But critics complained that while the basic one-way cost is A$3.53, even the cheapest toll option makes the tunnel more expensive than others in New York and London, costing daily commuters A$1900 ($2060) a year.

An analysis by the motoring organisation NRMA for the Sydney Morning Herald showed the cost to casual users was even more.

Yet it was supposed to be the answer to Sydney's downtown gridlock, with tunnel operator Cross City Motorway chief executive Peter Samson promising "Balmain to Bondi in a few minutes, Pyrmont to Paddington in a few minutes".

A system of road closures topside has also infuriated drivers.

The NRMA said that 80 per cent of motorists opposed the new road system that either required them to pay the tunnel toll or choose a longer drive across town than before.