The Pennsylvania Turnpike will continue its trend to lower the annual increase in toll rates in January, when rates will increase by 4%.
The rate hike, unanimously approved by the turnpike commission Tuesday, is slightly lower than the 5% increases the past three years, which ended a streak of 6% increases that started in 2015. The agency plans to continue to cut the rate until it reaches annual increases of 3% in 2028, but that rate is expected to last until 2050 as it pays off debts of $16 billion.
Before the vote, commission Chairman Mike Carroll noted that more than half the debt came from money the agency borrowed for 15 years while it was required to make annual payments of $400 million to the state Department of Transportation to pay the state’s mass transit subsidy. Those payments to PennDOT ended in 2022, but the agency will make debt payments on the money it borrowed until 2050.
“The turnpike continues to be a well-run and lean operation,” Carroll said. “On a per-mile basis, even with this increase, we will be in the middle of the pack” for costs compared to other toll agencies across the country.
The need for continuing rate hikes is “simply the result of the financial obligation” to pay off the borrowed funds, Carroll said.
Chief Financial Officer Richard Dreher said that payment will be about $1 billion this year. That is expected to grow to $1.2 billion a year in 2038 before the debt payments begin to drop, Dreher said.
This year, the agency changed how it calculated rates, which had been based on a flat fee from the interchange the motorist got on to the one the motorist got off the turnpike. With the changes to all-electronic payments and open road tolling where vehicles pass under payment gantries rather than stopping at toll booths at each entry and exit point, the agency now charges a fee per mile plus a fee for each gantry the motorist passes.
With the increase, the per-mile cost of driving on the turnpike for cars using the E-ZPass transponder will rise from 7 cents to 7.3 cents a mile, and the fee per gantry will increase from $1.09 to $1.13. Those fees double to 14.6 cents per mile and $2.26 per gantry for motorists who use Toll By Plate, where the agency takes a photo of the license plate of vehicles that pass under the gantries and mails owners a bill for processing the toll payment by hand.
With the new rates, the cost of a car trip from the Ohio border starting at Cranberry to Neshaminy Falls at the New Jersey border using E-ZPass will increase from $52.39 to $54.56. For the most common commercial vehicle, the cost would rise from $209.56 to $218.24.
Those fees are doubled for those who use Toll By Plate. About 86% of turnpike users have E-ZPass.
For common trips in the Pittsburgh area, the cost of traveling from the Allegheny Valley interchange to Monroeville in a car with E-ZPass will increase from $1.72 to $1.79, and from Monroeville to Irwin will increase from $1.79 to $1.86. For the most common commercial vehicle with E-ZPass, Allegheny Valley to Monroeville will increase from $6.88 to $7.16 and from Monroeville to Irwin will increase from $7.16 to $7.44.
Those fees double for Toll By Plate.
Dreher said the agency finished its eighth fiscal year in a row May 31 with spending below the budgeted amount, this time by about $55 million. Commercial traffic grew 1.9% and now is about 15% higher than before the pandemic, and passenger vehicle traffic is about even to 2021 numbers and revenue was up by 7%.
“Motorists continue to take advantage of our location and travel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike,” Dreher said.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.