Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) is raising tolls for cars 25c, Nov 1, potentially boosting revenues about 30%. At present 2-axle vehicles at mainline toll plazas in Houston TX pay $1.00 cash and 75c by transponder (EZ TAG). At ramp plazas tolls are currently 25c, 30c, 35, 50c, and 75c with the lower
Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) is raising tolls for cars 25c, Nov 1, potentially boosting revenues about 30%. At present 2-axle vehicles at mainline toll plazas in Houston TX pay $1.00 cash and 75c by transponder (EZ TAG). At ramp plazas tolls are currently 25c, 30c, 35, 50c, and 75c with the lower coin rates charging transponder users a small premium. The ramp plaza toll rates are being increased to 50c, 75c and $1.00 regardless of payment mode.
HCTRA has collectors and coin machines, but ended accepting tokens last summer.
Transponders are the payment mode for about 56% of toll transactions in Houston with 1.2m in use by about 500k account holders. They are the basic passive backscatter tags from Amtech, now Transcore. They use the energy of the incoming signal to respond to the system transceiver overhead, so they need no batteries.
3-axle vehicles presently pay $2.25 at mainline plazas and extra axles are 75c more. These mainly commercial vehicles face steeper toll increases. 3-axle vehicles go up 50c to $2.75. Tractor-trailers will pay $5.00 compared to $3.75 at present.
Director, Mike Strech, says the extra revenue is needed for extra electronic toll-only lanes and to support the extra debt service incurred in construction of the new Westpark Tollway, extension of the Hardy Toll Road into downtown Houston, and other capital projects.
Interestingly in his prepared statement Strech said of the higher tolls: "We realize of course there will be some patrons who choose not to pay the additional cost. However those who continue to use the system will receive the benefits of reduced congestion, and the higher tolls will offset the lost revenue."
Fitch and Moody's have recently given HCTRA good ratings, based on its strong revenue growth. Fitch recently gave it a AA+, among the highest in the country.
Toll increases by HCTRA don't meet political resistance. The current big toll rate hike which in, say New Jersey or Chicago, would create a major stir was hardly news in Houston. Most news reports gave it a few paragraphs and the leading newspaper CHRONICLE, so far as we can discover from Google and its archives – failed to report it altogether.
Tolls were last increased in 1999.
BACKGROUND: HCTRA is an unusual outfit. It is 20 years old this month (Sept 2003), but there is no public ceremony planned and has been no mention of the anniversary. HCTRA has almost no PR! It publishes no financial accounts, the closest thing being accounting compiled by clerks in the audit office of the county government.
Maybe this no-news approach helps HCTRA maintain a low profile?
HCTRA has been very successful in bulding viable tollroads, in developing a large customer base, and in generating strong revenues and profits. It's major road is the Sam Houston Tollway or TX-8, a three-quarters beltway around the Houston area. Its second road is the Hardy Toll Road, a northerly trending radial from the I-610 inner belt to the major area airport and northern suburbs. It is building a major east-west road the Westpark Tollway, plans a tollway in the middle of the I-10 Katy Freeway, and new tollroads to the southwest and west in collaboration with adjacent Fort Bend county.
Based on 800k tolls/day HCTRA toll revenues are heading for $300m annually putting it well up the ranking of US toll authorities. It operates 134km (83mi) of tollroad and was the leader in conversion to full highway speed open road tolling in 1997 and 1998, converting all nine mainline plazas - again with no fanfare. It has kept toll collection costs relatively low.
Much of the success of HCTRA is attributable to its longtime director Wes Freise, who however had a falling out with county commissioners over short-lived proposals for privatizing the operation in 1999. He remains a consultant to HCTRA, and has remained a prime mover on new projects. Strech who succeeded Freise as director after a short run by engineer Bernard Koudelka, is a taciturn character but highly regarded for his management skills. He was head of toll operations for some years prior to taking the top job. TRnews 2003-09-02
