Tag Archives: tolls
Algarve A22 motorway revenue is up
We have been talking constantly about the Algarve A22 tolls and how they are not popular with neither locals, nor with visitors. But despite all the protests and unpleasantness related to the tolls it appears that the takings from the country’s toll roads overall are up, the ones from the A22 motorway being among the top revenue earners.
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.
How to pay the Algarve A22 tolls
We’ve been talking about the Algarve A22 tolls that have been sparking a lot of talk and protests in the region but we haven’t actually talked about how to pay the A22 Algarve tolls, so this article is meant to cover that from the view-point of a tourist or visitor to the region.
Protests continue against A22 tolls
We’ve been reporting constantly about the very vocal protests against the A22 tolls that have been taking place before and ever since these were implemented, and today is one such other day.
New toll system in the works
The National Road Authority of Portugal is working on a new system of tolls for the formerly free SCUT roads – the A22 motorway is amongst these – because the current tolling scheme has been labeled as ‘ineffective’ and ‘unsustainable’.
Algarve toll fees update
We continue our coverage of the Algarve toll fees fiasco that we reported on yesterday with a bit of a late update. Ever since the October 1st, all the users of the former SCUT roads in Portugal – and this applies to the Algarve Via do Infante or A22 – will benefit from a reduction in toll fees. This was announced on September 30th, just before the exemption for Algarve residents that we talked about yesterday would expire.
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.
A call to end the A22 toll from the Algarve tourism sector
Three major figures leading the Algarve tourism sector have recently called for the immediate suspicion of the very controversial toll charges on the A22 motorway – Via do Infante – one of them describing them as being a “gross economic, political and social error”.
Why has this not happened sooner? Well the protest was sparked by the decision of the Portuguese Government to not extend the exemption granted to residents beyond the end of September, even if by all accounts the tourism sector was on the whole expecting it.
