Despite the economic crisis, revenue from the motorways is up, according to the national road company Estradas de Portugal – EP, with former virtual or SCUT toll roads reporting the biggest increases.

Interestingly enough the motorways in the Greater Lisbon Area and in the northern part of the country saw their receipts dropping during the first half of the year, the south being obviously the most traveled through part of the country.

EP highlighted the strong performance of the Algarve A22 motorway, saying that it saw a rise of 22 percent in its income, which amounts to about a 1.6 million euro increase when compared to the same period of 2012. The statement went further in saying that the peak summer period wasn’t taken into consideration when this study was made and since that is by far the peak traffic time for the Algarve, the numbers might actually be higher.

It’s an interesting time for these numbers to be coming out because there have only been two months since EP chief Antonio Ramalho expressed real concerns over the sustainability of SCUT motorways. This is due to the fact that vehicles without an electronic tagging device which use the SCUT motorways, cost as much to bill as the amount they pay in order to use the road.

Despite these positive numbers Mr. Romalho argued that the current system is unsustainable and it won’t be capable in the long term to maintain and preserve the road network.

We do know that a new toll system is in the works for the A22, we have to wait and see how these things will evolve in the future.

According to Antonio Romalho – president of the National Road Authority – the current system requires 43 million Euro to maintain, thus absorbing a whopping 29% of the tolls’ value charged to drivers, and it’s 4% of the company’s expenses.

While at a press conference to present the company’s results, he added that they are working on a new model alongside the Via Verde with road operator Ascendi in order to cut costs to around 10 to 15% of the company’s revenue.

According to the Portuguese business newspaper Dinheiro Vivo, the new system will work like the one currently used on large motorways and is due to be implemented in 2014.

The new system is being tested on the A23 – connecting Torres Novas to Guarda – in order to test its various features. The new system is being described as being simpler, and will feature toll gates with only one camera, because the vehicles will cross the gate at slower speeds.

The new gates will be installed in every entrance or exit of the road in question, and this means that all road accesses which are currently free will become paid in the future, and that the 77 toll gates will be replaced by newer ones.

According to the same newspaper one of the solutions is to make the electronic devices – similar to Via Verde – mandatory in every vehicle. This sounds like a tall order but when you consider that the government said they will this in their talks with Troika, there doesn’t seem to be any way back from it.

Sergio Monteiro – the Secretary of State of Public Works – while refusing to make a comment on the matter did say that the new system will lower the tolls because the same amount from the first to the last kilometer will be charged, which doesn’t happen with the current system.

According to the Tourism Board, the indicators are very positive in relation to the upcoming tourist season, especially when looking at the hotels’ preliminary spread sheets.

Desiderio Silva – the head of the regional Tourism Board – mentioned that there are units that are expecting their occupation rates until September or October to be much higher than what they initially predicted.

Speaking at the presentation of the Algarve Tourism Memorandum – a document lsiting various proposals as to how tourism can be improved within the region of the Algarve, Mr. Silva mentioned that this year both the French and the German markets have picked up after dropping in the number of tourists coming to Algarve in the past few years.

According to his estimations, the Algarve will most likely see more visitors from neighboring Spain as well, because due to the economic hardships they’ll opt for closer holiday destinations, and there are none closer than Portugal of course.

It is expected that more residents from Galicia and the Spanish Estremadura would more likely visit the Algave than those from actually neighboring Andalucia because they won’t have to pay any tolls on the motorways as opposed to the tolls required to get on the A22/Via do Infante.

The Algarve Tourist Memorandum features proposals based around the five pillars of air accessibility, touristic promotion, tax competitiveness, tourist products and the modernization of the destination as a whole.

We’ll just have to wait and see if these predictions actually come to fruition.

The new, reduced, charges will apply to all users, with transport companies benefitting from an extra ten percent reduction during the day and a twenty-five percent reduction during night time.

The roads that are covered by the new tolls are the A17 and A29 – Silver Coast, the A4, A41 and A42 – Greater Porto, the A28 – Norte Litoral, the A22 – Algarve, the A23 – Beira Interior, the A24 – Interior Norte and the A25 – Beira Litoral/Alta.

The former toll regime, allowed local residents and workers to benefit from ten free trips each month, however that was deemed illegal by the virtue of it being discriminatory by the European Commission, so the Government had to abandon it. That opinion was also echoed by the several major figures of the Algarve tourist market.

Going back to the European Commission decision, it argued that the old system of tolls was in violation of the right of free movement of people as well as the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of residence.

The updated regime is in accordance with EU legislation and in a statement from the Portuguese Minister of Economy, he said that the new regime won’t impact the State Budget and that it also respects the government’s user-payer principle for all the motorways in the country.

But the general feeling in the Algarve business sector on the whole isn’t as calm as the Minister’s conclusion sounds, instead they are expecting more bankruptcies, higher unemployment rates, less tourists from Spain, decreases in the Algarve car rental industry numbers and a more congested EN125 if the tolls remain active.

New protests are against the Algarve tolls are scheduled to take place in the near future.