Type of Scheme
- Distance based motorway tolling system that covers about 75% (about 5,000 miles) of the total motorway network.
Date of Introduction
Background
- In 1950s, main rebuilding following World War 2 was over and car-ownership began to increase rapidly.
- As early as 1955, a law was passed to allow toll financing of motorways.
- Concessionaire companies, from both the public and private sectors, run the whole of the toll motorway system.
- At present, of the 5,000 miles of toll roads, about 4,500 miles are publicly owned and 500 miles are privatised.
Aims
- Traditionally, objective has been to raise funds to pay for the construction, maintenance and operation of the motorway network.
- However, French government now starting to look at methods for converting traditional tolls into variable charges that could cover the cost of infrastructure but also assist in traffic management and cover the external costs (e.g. environmental impacts) imposed by road use.
How it Works
Charges:
- No charges are made on non-tolled sections of the motorway.
- Discounts are offered to frequent users with a contract with a tolling company.
- Drivers can pay with cash at manually operated toll booths and automatic booths, or by credit card at automatic booths.
- For these forms of payment, drivers must take a ticket issued from a machine at the beginning of journey and again when they wish to leave motorway when they must pass through a toll booth to exit and pay a charge.
- Charge is calculated according to the distance travelled and the type of vehicle.
- Drivers can also use the electronic toll collection (ETC) system - Libert-T which does not entail taking any tickets or making a physical payment.
- Drivers must still pass through a barrier at the booths at a slow speed but no stopping is required.
Technology:
- Libert-T is the electronic toll collection system available on the entire tolled motorway network.
- Drivers using this service must set up an account with one of the tolling companies who then issue the driver with an electronic tag which is placed in the car windscreen and communicates with roadside equipment to enable data to be stored on the journeys that have been made.
- Drivers receive a monthly invoice that reflects their journey history.
- Though different stretches of the motorway are run by different companies, the electronic tag distributed by each company is valid on the whole tolled network.
- Only one monthly invoice is issued - this is from the company the driver has a contract with rather than by each of the companies on whose roads the driver may have used.
- This is possible due to a national agreement between the companies to share data so that each company can reimburse the other if their clients have made trips on their roads.
Enforcement:
- The presence of control barriers in each lane makes it easy to intercept a driver trying to evade the charge (see below).
Revenue
- In 2004, French motorway concessionaires collected over 6 billion €.
- Toll revenues are used by the companies to finance operating costs (eg maintenance, safety), depreciation, financial costs linked to interest and repayment of loans (i.e. investments in infrastructure), VAT and other taxes.
- The following graph illustrates the breakdown of 10 € of toll collection in 2004.
Benefits/Results
- Tolled motorways provide a much faster, and less congested, means of travelling long distances. Travelling on non-toll roads can double a journey time.
Public Opinion
- 6500 customers surveyed by the Federation of French Motorway and Toll Facility Companies rated the toll payment systems with 8.5 out of 10.
- IFOP's annual survey, Motorways Image Barometer, showed in 2002 that 72% of respondents believed the construction of new interurban motorways should be primarily financed by tolls (as opposed to additional taxes - 10% - or a new tax on petrol - 6%).
Next Steps
- As well as considering the extent to which variable tolls should be used, the French Government has announced plans to auction off the state's shareholdings in three of the country's motorway networks - its entire 50.3% stake in Autoroutes du Sud de la France (ASF), its 74.3% holding in Societe des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France (Sanef), and a 70.2% chunk of Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone (APR).
- The government aims to raise between 11bn and 13bn € (£7.5bn-£8.8bn) and use the cash to cut national debt.
Website
Federation of French motorway and toll facility companies (ASFA):
www.autoroutes.fr.
References
International perspectives on road pricing
onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/conf/CP34roadpricing.pdf (Adobe Acrobat file).
French motorways: Experience and assessment
dinamico2.unibg.it/highways/paper/gaeta.pdf (Adobe Acrobat file).
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3052483.stm.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4185040.stm.
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