Charging, Tolling & RUC

Plans have been announced to install 43 new toll stations on Greek motorways over the next few years. Toll prices are expected to go up as private companies take on contracts, with some suggesting that the price of journeys could triple. A total of 21 toll stations are to be constructed on the Egnatia Odos highway, eight on Ionia Odos, seven on the Trikala-Domokos motorway and six on Olympia Odos.

A team of IBM experts completing a month-long pro bono consulting assignment has presented recommendations to Nigeria's Lagos State Government to ensure that private traffic and public transportation flows more efficiently in Africa's most populous city, Lagos. Working with the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority and the Lagos State Ministries of Transportation, Works and Infrastructure, Science and Technology, the IBM team of experts proposed technology-driven strategies to make travel easier.

The challenging issue of revenue collection was under discussion at the 2013 Australian National Electronic Tolling Committee (NeTC) Forum hosted in Brisbane in May by ITS Australia. ITS Australia chief executive officer Susan Harris said the collection debate focused on ways to educate customers about the rationale for charges, payment processes and tactics to avoid repeat deliberate non-payers. The Forum provided an opportunity for industry and government to explore case studies about the costs of process

San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) is considering implementing congestion charging in an effort to alleviate the rush hour gridlock in the city that it says is going to get worse in the coming decade. A congestion pricing plan from the city Transportation Authority is shortly to undergo an environmental review. Congestion charging would involve a toll for vehicles entering or leaving downtown at certain hours. Drivers would pay a fee when they drive downtown. They’d be charged automatica

Toll and transit authorities in Tampa, Florida, are to jointly propose a first bus/toll lanes (BTL) project for the region this autumn. Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) in Florida is developing a bus/toll lane (BTL) project in partnership with Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART), the regional governments' bus service provider. BTLs are toll managed lanes added to existing expressways that are designed for express transit buses plus toll-paying vehicles in volumes capped by dynamic prici

Ireland’s National Roads Authority (NRA) has awarded French tolling technology supplier Sanef its the contract to integrate and operate the Information Exchange Agent (IE interoperability hub in Ireland for the next five years, with an option for additional years. Sanef its will deploy its FastToll Interop solution, enabling customers to use any road and any Irish toll system with a single tag and a single invoice, making the NRA the first authority in Europe to provide a European Electronic Toll Service (E

The latest version of Cubic Transportation’s Cubic Payment Application (CPA 3.0) has been successfully validated according to PA-DSS v2.0 by the PCI Security Standards Council, and is listed as acceptable for new deployments on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) website. CPA 3.0 is designed to provide optimum performance for securely processing legacy closed-loop payments, such as agency issued transit smartcards, as well as emerging forms of payment including bank-issued contactles

UK group Serco has won the contract to operate and maintain toll roads in Hong Kong as it looks to push further into the transport sector. Beginning in September, the contract is worth US$123 million over a minimum six-year base period to manage, operate and maintain the Tsing Sha Control Area of toll roads. Serco has been contracted to engage in toll collection, controlling and regulating traffic, vehicle recovery and rescue, patrols and handling of incidents. The contract also covers scheduled works inclu

Norwegian toll systems supplier Q-Free is to supply its OBU610 on board toll tag to the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT). Due to Q-Free’s use of new production technology, the US£2 million order will be delivered within a month. Q-Free’s universal OBU610 is designed to blend into the interior of any modern vehicle and supports all 5.8GGhz CEN DSRC protocols for automatic vehicle identification and toll fee collection.

The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), the worldwide transportation association has announced the winners of its 2013 Toll Excellence Award competition that recognises excellence, innovation and achievement in the tolling industry. “This year’s submissions were particularly innovative,” said Patrick D. Jones, executive director and CEO of IBTTA. “There were many great examples of operations, technology, customer service and social responsibility, which made it difficult for our j