Greenway Tolls Go Up Sept. 7

The Greenway wasted no time raising rates after getting
approval from Richmond. I checked their site and they have
no info about the increase but Leesburg Today published
the story below saying that beginning Sept. 7th, rush hour
toll rates will be $2.40 and non-rush will be $2.00 with
a .10¢ discount for Smart Tag. They have approval to raise
it to $3.00 by Jan. 2007.

I still don't understand why they won't consider distance
based pricing. I think they would see alot more trips on it
if they charged reasonably based on the distance.

skins fan


Greenway Tolls Go Up Sept. 7

Leesburg Today
by David T. Hughes

Jul 29, 2004 -- Motorists using the Dulles Greenway Toll Road for rush hour commutes will find a bigger bite being taken from their credit cards beginning at 6:30 a.m. Sept. 7.

Rick Froehlich, chief financial officer for the toll road owners, said the Greenway will switch “time of day pricing,” with eastbound rush hour users paying $2.40 until 9 a.m. When they come home they will be hit for the same amount going the other way from 4 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. Users going the other direction will pay $2.00, with all Smartag users receiving a 10-cent discount no matter what time of day or direction.

Froehlich said Greenway executives understand that there will be an initial reduction in usage when the new tolls go into effect, but that “they will eventually come back when they understand the value of their time.”

The state corporation commission earlier this month approved the Greenway’s request to raise tolls, with authority to eventually charge up to $3 per trip. Regulators said the tolls may be increased again on Dec. 3, 2005, to $2.70 and reach the $3 cap by July 1, 2007. Toll Road Investors Partnership II, owners of the road, said in depositions before the SCC that more money was needed to meet debt service and add capital improvements to the roadway as the area’s population increases.

 

Froehlich needs to take a long walk off a short pier. What an a$$, "They will eventually come back". I think for every 5th time I roll through the toll at rush hour I'm going to sit on my smart tag and run the toll to reclaim my costs.

I need a Valium.....

Steven

 

Speaking of sitting on one's Smart Tag...someone told me even if you have your Smart Tag in the glove compartment, it will scan it...is that true?

 

I've seen it happen......

 

I have had the Smart Tag in my glove compartment (because I forgot to switch it back from uusing the EZ-Pass) when I went through, and it did not work. I basically ran the toll accidentally, although I wasn't too upset about it.

 

FYI - Smart tags have batteries that occasionally go dead. I haven't had it happen yet but have heard fun stories.

 

What happened? Did you get a ticket in the mail or did you get away with it?
I have ofter wondered if toll runners get caught with a camera or if that's just a bunch of hype from the toll road management.

 

I have never gotten a ticket and it has happened at least 3 times (at the end of a usually long drive from up north). Of course, I bet they will have lots of cops out when the price gouging starts.

 

I don't think smart tag sent them out but when I first got my 2 ez pass tags, they came with special "bags" that were supposed to shield them from being picked up. I keep the ez pass in those bags except when I go to NY and they have never been inadvertently charged. The bags look like the ESD bags that you get computer parts in.

I'm just suggesting this in case no one wants to sit on their smart tag...

Anybody notice that come the fall, you will be able to use EZ Pass on Smart Tag roads (and vice-versa)? I wonder if they will offer the 10 cent discount for EZ pass users or just for smart tag users - I would love to go from 4 tags down to 2 but I don't want to lose by ez pass toll discounts either...

 

Supposedly the delay of ez pass acceptance was the fact that Virginia (VDOT?) would have to surrender some control over the toll revenue...I honestly think it was more of a forced option. Outside pressure and the fact that the transponder system is made by the same company that does ez pass made it harder to say no to an intergration. I would be psyched to have one toll debit situation instead of 2.

I'm curious to see how the average local driver would handle ez pass signs - as it is, non-commuters (weekend drivers?) will stop in the smart tag lane during off hours/weekends waving money since they apparemtly didn't have a clue what "smart tag only" means. At many of the NY/NJ toll plazas, they use so much !@#$^ purple neon to differentiate the ez pass lanes (as well signage) so that even clueless drivers can sense that "there's something special about those lanes". That, and the ample amount of enforcement officers looking to nail ez pass lane violators...

 

If Toll Road Investors is going to raise the tolls on the Greenway to exhorbitant levels then I better get Cadillac service when I go through there. I'm getting increasingly frustrated at getting caught up in general "cash" traffic because a gate is down or they are switching lanes when I have a Smart Tag. I feel I should get a refund if they can't accommodate me in a Smart Lane. The value of the Greenway goes totally out the window if I have to wait a minute or more at the gate. I might as well go the long way.

Next time I'm go through there and they have some lane changing going on or some idiot without a transponder trying to go through the Smart Lane and creating a back up I'm gonna park my car next to the gate and wait until they give me credit.

If they are going to play hardball and gouge us I'm ready to play hardball too.

 

I'm not sure I see your point here. Some brain-dead driver without a Smart Tag enters the clearly marked lane, and you're blaming the Toll Road ?? I don't like the increase either; and with my business, I'm on it more than once in the morning and once at night, but I can't see holding the toll road responsible for dumb drivers does anything!!



Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

FYI - some of that increase is supposed to fund the following (from one of their press releases):

 

Interesting bit of information, if anyone cares. Since I stopped using the Greenway (about a little over a month ago) my smarttag bill has been reduced by 65%. Not that it matters, just interesting what getting up 10 minutes earlier will save. Drive time is only abut 7 minutes longer. Hopefully when the 2 cloverleaf interchanges on 28 are finished, it will reduce my time a few little more. I still use the toll road, but I can live with that.

 

Sheeee! We should be promoting others using the Greenway, else others will go 28.

[8D]

 

One of the revenue problems for the toll road is that as much as there is robust traffic during rush hour, people avoid the toll road like the plague during non peak times. I'm usually so pissed off about what I have to pay during the week, I won't touch it during the weekend. I wonder if the possibility of making the toll reasonable during weekend/holidays would get more people on the road? I think I would pay 50 cents to hop on the toll road to get to 28 rather than going down waxpool. I know the considerate folks at the Greeway aren't likely to try this, , but does anyone else agree that they would be more inclined to use the toll road during the weekend/holiday if the toll were 50 cents?