JOHN JANTAK
The 1019 Report

The tolls on Highway 30 are set to go up 40 cents on Feb. 1 to hit $3.90, marking an almost 22-per-cent increase in the passage fee since 2020.

The higher fees are directly linked to an increase in the number of vehicles crossing the toll area, located just south of the Soulanges Canal in Les Cèdres. About 25,000 vehicles passed through the tolls each day in 2022, according to A30 Express, the consortium that manages the highway. The number of vehicles using the highway increased last year to 27,800 vehicles daily.

“There’s a formula to increase the fares,” said Dominique Lemay, the new chief executive officer of A30 Express. “The rate varies for every 2,000 vehicles crossing daily. It’s a mix of the traffic volume during the year and the inflation rate. Both are used to calculate the toll rate changes.”

“It may seem like a big increase, but if you look at how the inflation rate has hit people in many ways, the increase in tolls over the past four years is a little bit lower than the inflation rate,” Lemay added.

The money collected from the tolls is used to maintain the road. The new rates will remain in effect until February 2024.

“More traffic means there is more degradation of the road and more interventions are needed,” Lemay said.

The new $3.90 toll applies to regular passenger vehicles. For larger vehicles, like delivery vans, some pickups, transport trucks and vehicles towing trailers, the fee jumps to $2.90 per axle, up from the current $2.60 per axle. 

Due to the ongoing work on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge, tolls on Highway 30 are suspended in the eastbound lanes from Monday to Friday, from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. This is the period with the highest volume of traffic headed toward Montreal, according to Transport Quebec. Outside of this period, tolls are charged.

Electric cars have been exempted from the tolls since 2016. This exemption has been extended until April 2027.

To qualify for the toll exemption, owners of electric vehicles must be registered with a green licence plate from the Société de l’Assurance Automobile du Québec and equipped with a transponder.

Motorists who regularly use the highway are also encouraged to get a transponder which will allow them to use the express lane and avoid line-ups at the pay toll booths.

“Sometimes people feel there are administrative fees for the transponder. There are no fees as long as a minimum amount of about $5 is kept in the account, Lemay said.

A30 Express is the private partner in charge of maintaining Highway 30 between Châteauguay and Vaudreuil-Dorion. They signed a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement with the provincial Transport Ministry in September 2008.

“If we look at the increases between 2020 and now, it’s about the same as the inflation rate,” Lemay told The 1019 Report.

“The increase between Jan. 1, 2020, to Feb. 1, 2024, was about 21.9 per cent. During this same period the inflation rate was 23.7 per cent,”  Lemay said.