Driving The Pennsylvania Turnpike Is About to Get More Expensive
Remember how we told you last week that Pennsylvania is the second-leading turnpike toll collector in all of North America? Remember how we told you that a road near Toronto is quietly sneaking up on the Keystone State for second place? We like to imagine state officials saw that their ranking was in jeopardy and took emergency action to ensure that Pennsylvania’s toll roads remain one of the premiere money-makers in all the world. But even if that’s not the case, tolls are about to go up.
Starting January 5th, tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will rise an average of 2 percent for E-ZPass customers and 12 percent for cash customers. And since tolls for cash customers have been rising faster than E-ZPass tolls for several years now, turnpike spokesman Bill Capone says come January, the cumulative differential for cash customers will be pretty steep.
“I’d say 35 percent would be the lowest differential. It could in some instances actually be more than 35 – as much as 39 percent, depending on your trip.”
The annual toll increases are not unexpected.
Spokesman Carl DeFebo says the Turnpike Commission is required to transfer $450 million a year to PennDOT for statewide transportation projects.
“As a matter of fact, Act 44, which was passed in 2007, did call for annual toll increases. And the Turnpike Commission started those annual increases back in 2009, and we’ve been making payments since 2007,” he said.
