Charging, Tolling & RUC

The Mayor of Budapest, Istvan Tarlos, has announced that he is planning to introduce congestion charges in the Hungarian capital. The extra funds raised through the measure would be spent on the improvement of public transport services and on providing financial support for the city's public transport firm BKV.

The new Richmond Airport connector link road is now open to traffic. The link provides a direct connection from the Pocahontas 895 highway to Richmond International Airport and cuts journey time on this route. This 2.5km road is an extension of the Pocahontas 895 highway and links directly to Airport Drive at Charles City Road. The new road can save drivers around 10 minutes or more on a trip to the airport, especially those coming from Chesterfield County and the Tri-Cities area. Customers using the Airpor

In a bid to narrow the state's budget gap, lawmakers in Connecticut are considering the reintroduction of toll roads. The state is facing a budget shortfall of US$3.5 billion – around 18 per cent of its total spending, and the proposal would see the introduction of electronic tolls around the state's entry points. According to a Cambridge Systematics study, annual toll revenue could reach $600 million with a fee of $5 to cross tolling points. It is thought that the move may be accompanied by a gas tax reduc

New contactless technology is being pioneered on the UK's M6 toll, which is operated by Midland Expressway. The technology is being developed in partnership with the UK bank Barclays and will enable drivers to make contactless payments when using the road with their debit and credit cards. Midland Expressway is currently installing the necessary contactless payment terminals ahead of the launch.

EU Member States will in future have the right to apply the polluter-pays principle when setting road tolls on trucks and lorries. They will be able to levy charges for external costs and vary tariffs in order to ease congestion during peak hours and to encourage fleet renewal. Earmarking of revenues for transport infrastructure was the key point of an informal deal reached on Monday evening between Parliament and Council representatives on the revised Eurovignette directive.

In Canada a new private toll bridge that links Montreal with Laval is now open to traffic. The bridge was opened two months ahead of schedule and features a sophisticated electronic tolling system. Bridge users mount transponders to their vehicles to pay for each crossing.

As part of its activities, the UK RAC Foundation (Royal Automobile Association) has published a research report, 'The Acceptability of Road Pricing' by Dr John Walker, which shows that paying for roads as you use them is common across the globe and that a significant number of schemes in operation have met a broad range of objectives without being prohibitively expensive. They have also been largely technically successful and once in place tend to gain public acceptance and support.

High road toll increases threaten new regulation, but states should be free to use toll revenue for Interstate improvements. Bob Poole reports Large toll rate increases have been implemented recently by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, justified in part to help pay for its World Trade Center project. In response, a bill was introduced in Congress that would allow the Secretary of Transportation to regulate tolls on every bridge on the country’s Interstates and other federally aided highways. F

Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str

Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) has launched a free mobile phone app it created for download on the iPhone and Android that it claims is the first of its kind in the US, allowing FasTrak account holders access to the same account and customer service features they find on The Toll Roads’ website.