The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is raising toll rates starting in 2021.
The commission voted Tuesday to approved a six-percent toll increase for all E-ZPass rates systemwide and Toll-By-Plate rates.
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The increase will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday. January 3.
Under the new toll plan, the most common rate for passenger vehicles will go from $1.50 to $1.60 for E-ZPass customers and from $2.50 to $3.90 for those choosing Toll-By-Plate. The most common toll for a Class-5 tractor trailer will increase from $12.20 to $13 for E-ZPass and from $17.30 to $26.60 for Toll-By-Plate users, according to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
In June, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission voted to lay off more than 500 workers. The workers were mostly toll collectors who believed they had around two years until the highway system’s full transition to cashless tolling.
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Due to the pandemic, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission switched away from cash and credit card tolling and moved permanently to all-electronic tolling collection. The system saves the need for toll collectors and captures a driver’s license plate and uses that information to send a bill.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said they are exploring options to offer Toll-By-Plate discounts through pre-registration, but details would not be announced until later this year.
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Turnpike users have long been encouraged to switch to E-ZPass due to the convenience and cost savings.
“Currently, 86 percent of our customers have chosen E-ZPass, with more switching every day. Now that hundreds of grocery stores in the commonwealth offer E-ZPass, chances are you regularly pass by at least one of them,” Turnpike CEO Mark Compton said. “Because of our low administration and enrollment fees, and the ability to set up an automatically replenished or cash-funded E-ZPass account, there’s simply no reason not to get it.”
The Pennsylvania Turnpike has raised tolls consistently over the past several years.
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It has been projected that the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will have to raise tolls for years to come due to financial distress caused by a 2007 law that moves close to $450 million annually from the commission to PennDOT.
“The primary driver of the annual toll-rate increases continues to be our quarterly transit payments to PennDOT and the resulting debt service that comes along with the legislatively mandated funding obligation,” Compton said in a statement. “As a result, the PA Turnpike has delivered almost $7 billion in funding to PennDOT in the last decade, primarily to support mass-transit operations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.”
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While the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission recently asked and was granted a deferment of a quarterly PennDOT payments due to COVID-19 impacts, the commission still owes the hundreds of millions of dollars at the end of the year.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said in June that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a $100 million drop in revenue. The commission has already cut spending and froze hiring.
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