As the alternative formula is defined, the probability of a return of tolls on Spanish roads as we know them is so remote. Because exactly one year later four iconic highways Catalans will be exempt from the toll, there is still no plan on the table. The only thing that is clear is that the Government needs to find a pay-as-you-go system, one of its commitments by 2024. Brussels to get their share of European funds’Next generation‘. The thing is, it hardly meets deadlines: A year and a half after that deadline, there is still no choice on the table, and the only official position of the responsible department is “not to do it in the short term”. The plan is to take action next year when the elections are over.
“With the global macroeconomic situation and the fight against inflation, this is not the time to address the issue, but there is a commitment. study alternatives in a technical and meticulous way that can be shared,” sources from the ministry synthesized this Wednesday. “This is not for the legislature, but we want it to be reviewed,” they add.
In other words, the plan that the government has already commissioned, ineco public advisor Starting with the study that will present all the possibilities and a timetable for their deployment is to reach the elections at the end of 2023 with a bit more clarity. For now, they are working with the idea that the person responsible for these reports will have them ready next year.
The options are not new: it could be a vignette (a kind of flat rate) or a payment system based on kilometers traveled. “Almost all countries implementing the Convention, pay per use passed someone before bullet”, recall the same sources, which also do not exclude this scenario. In any case, beyond the model, it is also necessary to decide which routes will enter the payment plan or how the regional network will enter all this. “There is also a political decision on what financing model we are demanding,” they conclude.
positive balance
What is clear to them from the Ministry is that the balance of the first year AP-7 and AP-2 No toll is good. “There has been a change in their mobility habits, because what people do is what suits them best: if they can go further, more comfortably and safely, they will take the highway,” he points out to these sources. traffic (for example more than double in the case of AP-2) to this state.
In this sense, and also with regard to accidents, the Government plans to invest EUR 1,050 million in actions to improve connectivity, functionality and circulation in general. They were also open to consider any option put forward by other agents involved in the industry. Catalan Transit Servicesuggesting to lower the maximum speed on certain parts of the AP-7.
“As road owners, we’ve been working since the toll dropped to make the AP-7 and Ap-2 more durable in the event of an accident, improving their functionality, and making them safer and more accessible,” he said. Ministry sources, which have invested 60 million euros in the maintenance of the road so far and calculated that drivers have saved total since 31 August last year, 600 million € when you use it for free.