While the Economy Ministry, under which the Transport Secretary operates, and IP (Portugal Infrastructures) have remained tight-lipped on this development, a plan has been in place for some time now to reduce the cost of tolls without placing the sustainability of the toll-road system under threat.
According to a report this week by financial newspaper Diário Económico, discounts or reductions will vary from 5, 10 and 15 percent on toll roads. Analysts who spoke to the paper said the basis of this reduction is to encourage more drivers to use toll roads in the hope that increased traffic will result in a rise in revenue, with the state’s coffers actually being swollen by this move.
Prime Minister Passos Coelho has in recent days said the government is already in a position to apply a system of “positive discrimination very quickly”, with light commercial vehicles and passenger cars the beneficiaries.
This, he said, would apply to motorways in rural Portugal and the Algarve, but had not yet been introduced as he felt the government would have been accused of using this as an electoral ploy to gain more votes.
“I must say that after we concluded the whole renegotiation process (of private-public partnerships) we could have made the decision. But we didn’t for one reason: because if we had, people would have said we have only done it for electoral reasons.
“The contracts with motorway operators have been renegotiated and we are now in a position to implement this positive discrimination. These forms of discrimination will be done in accordance with the traffic of passenger and light commercial vehicles”, he concluded.
Following the Prime Minister’s statements, the leader of the Socialist Party António Costa, also said that the tolling system would be revised in the Algarve and on rural motorways.
“We have already stated that it is necessary that we need to re-evaluate the contractual obligations the state has assumed, the Socialist leader explained, adding that one of his party’s priorities is to go one step further and “eliminate” tolls and “create better access routes” in the Algarve and in the countryside.
Costa said that although he is not supportive of anti-toll protests, and that he is “unenthusiastic about eliminating tolls”, some situations are in urgent need of an overhaul, such as the A22 Via do Infante which runs the length of the Algarve.
While details of the plan to which the Prime Minister referred have not yet been made public, it appears it could also include an even greater reduction for heavy vehicles, in order to ease congestion and damage to secondary roads.
Though he made mention of “positive discrimination”, whichever government takes office on 5 October, there will be no discounts to local residents as happened in the past and as was found to be in contravention of European legislation.
It is also expected that the new system could take effect before the end of the year, and could cover motorways which were charged from the outside, such as the A2 which links Lisbon with the Algarve.
Earlier this year, The Portugal News revealed details of proposals handed to the government among which is one that would see motorists charged per kilometre.
This would however render the overhead toll gantries currently in place to charge tolls useless for that particular purpose.
According to calculations by motoring magazine Autohoje, these gantries came at an average cost of 1.4 million euros, with 80 currently littered along a number of stretches on ten of Portugal’s motorways.
Back in January, Roads of Portugal president António Ramalho termed the current overhead gantry system a “mistake” and set about calling for a “new model” to be found to collect tolls on previously unpaid motorways.
“Ten years ago, Portugal boasted the best toll system in the world – Via Verde”, he said, but added “the new gantry system contradicts the Via Verde system and is destructive from a marketing point of view.”
Ramalho added that there are currently “huge concerns in finding a new model, but we are not going to make a mistake just because we are in hurry and end up choosing the wrong model.”
António Ramalho has also previously admitted that the cost of maintaining these motorways had become “unsustainable and we hope it doesn’t stay the way it is. If it doesn’t change, we will not have enough money to conserve, preserve and maintain our road network.”
The current system in place sees an average of 34 percent of profits channelled towards administrative costs. It is argued that the new system, even with lower costs to motorists, would see an increase in revenue, not only due to more traffic, but also as a result of a substantial reduction in operating costs.
Late in 2014, a preliminary report revealed that moving trucks and commercial vehicles onto these motorways at a reduced cost to companies could translate into actual savings for the state due to the damage caused by these vehicles which have flooded secondary routes since the introduction of tolls on SCUT motorways back in 2010.
Instead of overhead gantries, the new proposed system will see motorists “charged electronically” upon leaving a motorway.
Two single and separate cameras will be placed at motorway on-ramps and off-ramps, with road users no longer able to avoid tolls on certain parts of motorways, which is currently the case due the logistic impossibility of placing gantries along particular stretches.
These cameras will take a photo of the back and front of a vehicle, while a third laser-like device will measure the height of the vehicle in order to calculate its size.
It is said the system will cost a “tenth of the existing gantries.”
Post-payment at venues such as CTT post offices has been earmarked by both the government and road companies as ineffective.
Amongst proposals is one that stipulates that drivers whose cars are not equipped with electronic devices will be required to pre-pay use of a motorway.
Sources in Lisbon had previously told The Portugal News the intention was for existing gantries to remain in place, saying they “might be used for other traffic-related activities.”
While no figures were available for 2014, EP said it failed to collect a total of €30.6 million from offending drivers back in 2013 and, on average, 19 percent of toll-road users fail to pay for using a SCUT motorway.