De-privatised toll motorways free overnight from midnight on Monday

From 06.01 on Tuesday morning (January 15), toll prices on these motorways will be 30% lower.

Spain's previous government began the process of 'buying back' motorways run by ailing toll companies, and the new socialist cabinet, which came into power in June, continued to see the plan through.

Both governments had announced buy-backs and non-renewals when toll company franchises on most of Spain's pay-per-use motorways expired, with the next ready for de-privatisation being the AP-7 between Silla, just south of Valencia, and San Juan, a few kilometres north of Alicante, on January 1, 2020.

From midnight on Monday, the AP-7 Alicante ring-road and, a few kilometres further south, between Cartagena (Murcia) and Vera (Almería) will be free of charge overnight and 30% cheaper by day, along with the AP-36 through Castilla-La Mancha, between Ocaña (Toledo province) and La Roda (Albacete province), the M-12 between Madrid city and the airport, and four of the outer Madrid link roads or 'radial' highways.

The 'radial' roads connect the capital city to motorways heading in all directions across the country – the R-3 joins the A-3 Valencia trunk road at Arganda del Rey; the R-4 connects to the A-4 Cádiz motorway at Ocaña; the R-5 links to the westbound A-5 referred to as the 'Extremadura motorway', at Navalcarnero, and the R-2 merges into the A-2 Zaragoza motorway at Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha).

These toll roads suffered major losses after they opened between 2000 and 2004, since traffic flow was around 75% on average lower than predicted as drivers sought alternative routes to avoid the cost.

The ministry of public works, then led by the former socialist government under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, slashed prices on all these motorways, but the cost went up again in 2008 – just at the start of the financial crisis, which led to a fall in traffic volume of 48.3%.

Even now, traffic volumes on these motorways continues to be well below that seen before the financial crisis, and the toll franchise firms have not been able to cover their costs.

The government still needs to pay off the firms their costs for constructing the motorways, which they have not managed to claw back in the last 15 to 19 years, hence some level of tolls will continue to be charged for the time being.

Along with the AP-7 through the provinces of Valencia and Alicante, the next motorway to be de-privatised will be the Madrid-Toledo AP-41, whose maintenance firm is currently in liquidation.