So far away is the possibility that the tolls as we know them return to the Spanish roads, as defined is the alternative formula. Because exactly one year after four iconic Catalan highways will be free of payment, no plan yet. The only clear thing so far is that the Government had to come up with a payment system this year to apply it for 2024, because it committed to that with Brussels as a bargaining chip to receive their share of European funds’Next Generation‘. The point is that it will hardly meet deadlines: a year and a half before this deadline, there is still no clear option on the table and the only official position of the department of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda is that there will not be in the short term. The objective, in fact, is to act once the elections at the end of next year are over and the limit that has been set is already 2025.
“With the global macroeconomic situation and with the fight against inflation, it is not timely to address the issue, but there is a commitment to study alternatives in a technical and rigorous way & rdquor ;, sources from the ministry have synthesized this Wednesday. “It is not for this legislature, but we do want to have it studied & rdquor ;, they add.
In other words, the government’s plan, which in fact has already commissioned the Ineco public consultant to start with the study that will present all the possibilities and a calendar to deploy them, is to reach the elections at the end of 2023 with a clear payment model. For now, they work with the idea that the company responsible for these reports will have them ready next year. And as for the delay in the face of Brussels, “the objective is to make decisions when it’s time”, these same sources respond.
The options are not really new: it can be a bullet point (a kind of flat rate) or a system of payment based on the kilometers traveled, for instance. “Almost all the countries that have ended up implementing payment for use have gone through a vignette before & rdquor ;, recall these ministerial voices, who do not rule out this hybrid scenario either. In any case, beyond the model, they also have to decide which routes would be included in the payment plan or what role the regional network will play. “There is also a political decision about what is the financing model to which we aspire & rdquor ;, they complete.
positive balance
What is clear to them from the ministry is that the balance of the first year of AP-7 and AP-2 without tolls is positive. “It has been a change of habits in mobilitybecause people do what is most favorable to them: if they can go further, more comfortably and safely, they will take the highway & rdquor ;, point out these sources, who attribute the increase in traffic (more than double in the case of the AP- 2, for example) to this situation.
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In this sense, and also in relation to the accident rate in recent months, the Government plans to invest 1,050 million euros in actions to improve links, functionality and circulation in general. It has also been open to assessing any option put forward by other agents involved in the sector such as the Catalan Transit Servicewhich has proposed reducing the maximum speed on certain sections of the AP-7.
“As owners of the road, we have been working since the toll fell so that the AP-7 and AP-2 can be more resilient in the event of an accident, improve their functionality and be safer and more accessible”, specify the ministry sources, who They also point out that 60 million euros have been invested to date in maintaining these roads and that they calculate that drivers have saved a total of 600 million euros in the last year by using free vehicles.