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ARCHIVED - Transport Minister considers extending toll charges on motorways in Spain
The scheme would run alongside the phasing out of tolls on roads run by concessionaries
The issue of tolls on motorways continues to be a controversial one in Spain, and on Monday it re-emerged when José Luis Ábalos, the Minister for Transport and Mobility, raised the possibility of charges being introduced even on roads which are run by the State rather than by concessionary companies.
At present tolls are payable by drivers only on these privately managed and maintained motorways, and under the current government the policy has been not to renew them after their contracted duration expires: this was the case, for example, on the AP-7 between Catalunya and Alicante, which became toll-free at the start of 2020.
But this week Sr Ábalos gave serious consideration to introducing tolls on other motorways at a symposium on the topic of Mobility, commenting that it would be necessary to differentiate between different types of road user in implementing such a scheme. Individuals in private vehicles, he suggested, would be exempt from charges, but those who use certain roads in order to make them more competitive in their economic activity and thus benefit from using the infrastructures could be subjected to tolls.
These comments come at a time when parts of the road transport sector are facing a pandemic-induced crisis, particularly in the passenger transport sector. The number of coach travellers has dropped sharply since the first cases of Covid-19 in Spain were confirmed in February, and the resulting loss in turnover could lead to one in three of the country’s 3,000 coach and bus companies going out of business, according to the Confebus association.
This is not the first time that José Luis Ábalos has intimated a possible introduction of toll charges on State-run roads: during the summer he confirmed that the government was looking at the idea of a “symbolic” charge of around 10 per cent of the tolls paid on other motorways, part of which would go towards reducing those higher tolls. At the same time, though, he reiterated the commitment to eliminating tolls on roads where the management concession expires, but after strong criticism from within the sector he later added that no firm plans had been drawn up.
His stance is contradictory and confusing, but it seems that there is still some mileage in the idea of charging for the use of roads in Spain even if the Minister can´t decide how this is should be done!