Skip to main content

Coronavirus: Pennsylvania suspends cash tolls

Toll operator Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has temporarily suspended cash payments at all interchanges to remove interaction between drivers and personnel in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak
By Ben Spencer March 19, 2020 Read time: 1 min
PTC temporarily suspends cash payments at all interchanges (© Georgesheldon | Dreamstime.com)

PTC CEO Mark Compton says: “This temporary measure is critical to enable us to support the Commonwealth in its efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. I want to be clear that we will return to normal toll-collection operations as soon as it becomes practical.”

PTC says all tolls will be assessed electronically via E-ZPass or the PA Turnpike Toll by Plate programme as vehicles travel through tolling points.

Drivers without an E-ZPass should continue to use lanes marked 'Tickets' on entry and 'Cash' on exit, but should keep moving through the lane without stopping. The vehicle owner receives a Toll By Plate invoice within 30 days of the trip made through the tolling point.
Motorists have 20 days to pay the invoice before a second one is issued with an additional fee of $5 or the equivalent of 1.5% of the total amount owed.

Cash tolls will still be in place on the Mon-Fayette Expressway via the current automated payment machines.

 

 

Related Content

  • September 8, 2014
    Rapid growth makes Texas an incubator for tolling innovation
    As the IBTTA’s annual meeting and exhibition heads for Austin, Mitchell Beer, president of Smarter Shift, considers the role of Texas in the development of tolling strategies and technology. The State of Texas has always prided itself on being ‘larger than life’. From the sprawling geography of the state itself with its wide open skies, to its entrepreneurial ‘get-it-done’ attitude, Texas exudes an impatient restlessness that pushes businesses and public agencies to deliver faster, better results. More ofte
  • July 4, 2012
    Meeting the challenges of smartcard fare payment
    David Crawford monitors a growing trend in contactless smartcard ticketing The north east United States has become a hive of activity in the smart fare payment arena. In October 2011, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) published, as a preliminary to an imminent procurement process, the detailed concept of its New Fare Payment System (NFPS). Based on open payment industry standards, this is designed to be implemented on all MTA bus and subway services operated by New York City Transit (
  • December 19, 2013
    Maine toll road evaluates AET
    A new ten year plan released by the Maine Turnpike Authority defers decisions on work to upgrade its three largest toll plazas pending completion of a next generation toll collection study that will consider the costs and benefits of going all-electronic, versus open road electronic tolling (ORT) and cash and a timetable. Objections from local residents and the failure of the Turnpike to consider the alternative of all-electronic tolling (AET) led to the delay of a previous ten year plan in 2009 that set
  • August 5, 2016
    Hartford’s tailors winter maintenance on Esri’s GIS platform
    The in-house winter maintenance and vehicle tracking system built by the Public Works Department in Hartford, Connecticut, coped with record snowfalls and cut costs too. When it comes to dealing with the effects of mother nature, transport agencies can find themselves in a lose-lose situation: criticised if the roads or rail lines are disrupted by snow, ice or floods for more than a few hours and lambasted for wasting money if the equipment and stockpiles put in place for a hard winter remain unused.