The Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) is drafting guidelines to ensure a smooth transition and effective implementation of the barrier-free expressway system across the Philippines.
TRB executive director Alvin Carullo emphasized the need for proper guidelines to accompany the Department of Transportation’s upcoming department order mandating the nationwide shift.
Carullo said phase one of the barrier-less expressway is scheduled to be implemented in November 2024.
“In this phase, only the toll barrier at the entry will be removed, and all the exit lanes will still maintain barriers,” Carullo said.
“The succeeding phases wherein all the exit barriers will be removed is initially scheduled in 2025 to 2026,” he said.
Carullo said the benefit of having a barrier-less toll road is that there will be no more stopping at toll gates, thereby improving the flow of traffic, eliminating choke points and bottlenecks and increasing the throughput of tollways.
Carullo said the government is looking at the impact of the program to existing toll collection.
To recover its investment, Carullo said the operators can implement a toll increase of an extension of the concession period.
“It’s up to the discretion of the board. We may opt to extend the concession period rather than an increase in toll rate,” he said.
Carullo said the agency already completed the third proof of concept testing for the country’s electronic toll collection (ETC) interoperability.
“Unfortunately some technical issues are within the system of the MPTC [Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.] Group, so they are asking for the postponement of the implementation from July to October,” he said.
“Right now the TRB Secretariat is reviewing the reason for the request,” he said.
The toll collection interoperability project was launched in 2017 with the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Department of Transportation, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Land Transportation Office, TRB, San Miguel Group, Metro Pacific Group and the Ayala Group.
The agreement states that the toll road companies are required to make adjustments in their systems to enable interoperability and an integrated toll collection.
Carullo said the average penetration rate of ETC transactions across all tollways is at 90 percent.
He said the Toll Collection System Interoperability Project is designed to provide motorists the ease and convenience of maintaining only one RFID sticker and one account/wallet.
San Miguel Corp., which operates Skyway, South Luzon Expressway, STAR Tollway and NAIAx, uses AutoSweep RFID tag, while Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., which operates Manila Cavite Expressway, C5 Link Expressway and Cavite Laguna Expressway, uses EasyTrip RFID tag for electronic toll collection
