Spain removes tolls from main highways in Catalonia

More than 500 kilometers of motorways have become free, in Catalonia, Wednesday 1er September, the Spanish government having decided not to extend the concessions held until then by subsidiaries of the Abertis group. No more tolls on the AP-7 between La Jonquère, at the French border, and Tarragona, in the south of the northeastern region of Spain, as well as on the AP-2, between El Vendrell, on the coast, and the Aragon region, to the west.

On these two state-owned highways, more than 100,000 vehicles per day circulate, including about 20,000 trucks. The Catalan government, for its part, has taken a similar decision for two regional-owned expressways, including the Maresme motorway, the oldest toll road in Spain, in service since 1969.

Not to extend the duration of the motorway concessions, which were to expire during his mandate, is a commitment made by the President of the Spanish government, the Socialist Pedro Sanchez, when he came to power in 2018. Since then, nearly 600 kilometers toll motorways, built forty to fifty years ago, have become free, starting with the AP-1, between the Basque Country and Castile, then the AP-4, which connects Seville and Cadiz, in Andalusia, and the section of the AP-7, between Alicante and Tarragona, which runs along the Mediterranean coast.

“A spoliation”

With the Catalan sections, more than 1,000 km of motorways have seen their toll stations disappear. However, free circulation should be temporary there. In the Spanish stimulus plan sent to Brussels at the end of April, the government pledged to “Develop a payment system for the use of the high-capacity track network which makes it possible to cover maintenance costs and integrate the negative effects of road transport”. It is giving itself one year to develop a new financing scheme for motorways, on the model of vignettes, as in Switzerland, or payment per kilometer, as in Portugal, and until 2024 to apply it. By the way, all motorists should be accommodated in the same boat, wherever they live.

Until Wednesday, Catalonia was, in fact, the region of Spain with the most kilometers of toll motorways: almost half of the network, against around 18% in the rest of the country. A situation which had fueled, in recent years, the victimist discourse of Catalan nationalists. “It is a plunder which has lasted for too long”, declared the vice-president of the Catalan government, the independentist Jordi Puignero, on August 26, before warning that “The model according to which the Catalans pay and the Spanish citizens not, will not be repeated”.

In the meantime, environmentalists are worried about the consequences of the end of tolls on the use of suburban trains and fear a sharp increase in road traffic.