Tolls on the state Thruway will increase 5 percent on Sunday, the last of a series of toll hikes in recent years on the 641-mile system.
The toll increase will help fund the final phase of a five-year, $2.1 billion capital plan to improve the Thruway’s roads and bridges. The toll increase will be 5 percent for both cash customers and those with E-ZPass tags.
The $5 round-trip toll on the Tappan Zee Bridge will not increase for passenger vehicles, but it will increase 5 percent for commercial vehicles. The commercial rates will also increase 5 percent on the Spring Valley toll barrier in Rockland County.
There are no new toll increases at the barriers in Yonkers and New Rochelle in Westchester County, or at the barriers in Harriman, Orange County, and Grand Island, Erie County.
A one-way trip on the Thruway from exit 46 near Rochester to exit 23 in Albany — a 221-mile trip — will increase from $9.90 to $10.40 for cash customers.
The state Thruway Authority has been criticized in recent years for mismanagement, and political leaders have urged the authority to not go forward with the toll increases.
But authority officials said the increases have been necessary amid a decline in traffic and the need to raise more revenue to fund road improvements. Higher construction costs, however, have forced the authority to scale back or eliminate some projects in the five-year plan.
The toll increase will be the second since last year, along with a cut in discounts motorists receive through use of E-ZPass. The latest increase is expected to generate $27 million a year in revenue.
(Source: RocNow)
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One Response
Who needs the tolls anyway? The municipal workers’ union so they are able to collect members dues from the toll collecters and Thruway Authority employees? How much revenue do they take in anyway?