Another two motorways to become free of charge after summer

TWO more major motorways in Spain are about to become toll-free once their franchises end in August, meaning a potential annual saving for motorists of half a billion euros a year.

Transport and infrastructure minister José Luis Ábalos says 'over 13 million vehicles' using the 474 kilometres of trunk road annually will be able to do so for free after the summer.

Removing the tolls will 'pave the way for a new, much fairer, more equitable and equal highways network', for 'users and regions alike', given that those regions whose main motorways carry a charge to drivers are at a disadvantage – from day-trippers and tourists having to factor in toll fees to their getaway costs and, perhaps, opting to go elsewhere, though to goods and shipping services potentially being more expensive.

The motorways due to become free of charge at the point of use from the end of August are the AP-7 between Tarragona, Catalunya's southernmost province, and La Jonquera (Girona province) on the French border, and the AP-2 between Zaragoza, Aragón and El Vendrell (Tarragona province).

Ábalos was asked by Senator Jordi Martí, of the Catalunya Left Republicans (ERC), how he planned to finance the cost of maintenance, repairs and upgrades on highways where toll franchises were no longer being renewed.

The minister said his department was carrying out research into 'traffic distribution' and the different needs of each motorway on the main State highways network, and drawing up contract terms to put out to bid for their maintenance, as well as working on setting up an operations centre for Catalunya's trunk roads.

Over the past three years, motorways have been gradually 'shedding' their toll fees, and by August, hardly any roads in Spain will attract a charge other than a small number of outer-city interchanges, where prices tend to be in cents rather than euros.

The most recent motorway to become toll-free was the AP-7 through the Comunidad Valenciana, from Silla, just south of Valencia, to San Juan, just north of Alicante, where prices had gone from being a minor inconvenience at the beginning of the century to prohibitive by the end of the franchise term, often exceeding the amount drivers would spend on petrol for the same journey.

After two decades, the tolls were set to be scrapped from January 1, 2020 – meaning on the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2019 – but in practice, they ceased to be charged from 22.00 on that day since the toll companies decided to let booth workers go home early so they could see in the New Year with their friends and family.

A service station in Benissa (northern Alicante province) off the AP-7 held a New Year party to celebrate the motorway's becoming free of charge at last.