Traffic on Toronto's all-electronic 407-ETR tollroad has leveled off. Trips this year are almost identical to last year at about 300,000/workday and 240,000 AADT. Vehicle-km traveled are down a tad at 1,680m (about 1.04b veh-mi). The leveling off is probably a combination of... MORE
Traffic on Toronto's all-electronic 407-ETR tollroad has leveled off. Trips this year are almost identical to last year at about 300,000/workday and 240,000 AADT. Vehicle-km traveled are down a tad at 1,680m (about 1.04b veh-mi). The leveling off is probably a combination of toll increases, a sluggish economy, and the end of 'ramp-up.' Average tolls for all vehicle classes increased about 10% from $2.37 to $2.60 (C$3.27 to C$3.59). The average trip is 18.8km (11.7mi) so the average toll rate for all vehicle classes is 13.8c/km (22.2c/mi).
Toll revenues in the first half of the year were running at $228m/yr (C$315m)up 10% over 2002H1 but operating expenses rose, so the bottomline after interest costs of $170m/yr remained about the same at about a $50m/yr loss.
Big increases in camera toll charges helped fuel an increase in transponders in use from 506k mid-2002 to 557k mid-2003. There is no provision for cash payment on 407-ETR. Motorists without a transponder account have their license plate photographed and get billed by mail after an owner's address is extracted from motor registry databases. TRnews 2003-07-25
