Just wave and go with electronic tolls

Drivers using the Windsor-Detroit tunnel linking Canada with the US will shortly be able to pay electronically on both sides of the border. Until now, electronic payment has only been available on the US side. Tunnel president Neal Belitsky said it’s part of a plan to eventually phase out tunnel tokens after 2013. “We’re going to be getting out of the token business,” Belitsky said. “It takes time to buy rolls of tokens. All that is going to disappear. If you look throughout the US or Canada, you can count
November 2, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Drivers using the Windsor-Detroit tunnel linking Canada with the US will shortly be able to pay electronically on both sides of the border. Until now, electronic payment has only been available on the US side.

Tunnel president Neal Belitsky said it’s part of a plan to eventually phase out tunnel tokens after 2013. “We’re going to be getting out of the token business,” Belitsky said.

“It takes time to buy rolls of tokens. All that is going to disappear. If you look throughout the US or Canada, you can count the number of transportation facilities that use tokens ... probably on one hand.”

The electronic system uses Nexpress cards, radio-frequency identification (RFID) cards similar to those used in the NEXUS program. Canadian customers will be able to order a Nexpress card online, load it with funds, then pass through the toll gates quickly and smoothly by waving the card at an electronic reader.

“It’s a lot faster and it’s a lot more convenient,” Belitsky promised.

Belitsky said there are currently about 15,000 tunnel tokens in circulation. He envisions the tunnel will stop selling tokens in early 2013, and stop accepting them entirely at the end of that year. Belitsky said the tunnel will still have attendants, and always accept cash.
Charging, Tolling & RUC

Related Content

  • Enforcement needs automation and communication
    February 1, 2012
    TISPOL's Peter van de Beek questions whether the thought processes which drive enforcement technology development are always the right ones. Peter van de Beek sees an ever-greater role for technology in traffic enforcement but is concerned that the emphasis of technological development and discussion is not always in the right places. 'Old-fashioned' face-to-face policing remains as valid as it ever did, he feels, but adds that there should be greater communication with those engaged at the sharp end of saf
    Read More
  • All-electronic toll collection: the promise - and the reality
    February 14, 2024
    Hal Worrall and Mike Carneiro look at the history of AETC - and offer some thoughts on why it cannot just be seen as an expansion of existing ETC technology
    Read More
  • Largest open transit fare system in the US launches in Chicago
    June 28, 2013
    Cubic Transportation Systems, MasterCard and Money Network are to partner in a program to launch what is said to be the largest open transit fare payment system (OSFS) in the US. The Ventra card is about to make its debut with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and suburban bus operator Pace, giving customers two new options to pay for train and bus rides. The Ventra card features two accounts - a closed-loop account for transit payments and an optional reloadable prepaid card that can be used for everyday
    Read More
  • TEXpress adds reversible managed lanes
    April 19, 2017
    Land availability restrictions and tidal traffic flows have led to the implementation of a novel managed lane configuration in Texas, as Colin Sowman finds out. Dealing with traffic congestion related to the ‘tidal flows’ caused by large numbers of commuters making their way into major business hubs in the morning and returning to the suburbs in the evening, has seen the widespread use of adaptive signal timing and even reversible lanes.
    Read More

Highlighted Content