Knowledge Resources

This report covered an analysis of tolling systems to help state officials and other policy makers discuss the implementation and operational costs of alternative revenue-generating systems. Three to five years of capital and operational cost data were collected from approximately 15 tolling agencies that operate and maintain a variety of electronic toll collection and variable pricing systems including open road toll systems and managed lanes in the United States and Canada. Agencies surveyed included older turnpike systems, more recently established toll agencies, and private companies that operate toll facilities under concession agreements.

The following data excerpted from Table 26 of the source report compares operating costs with revenues. In 2007, the data show that tolling agencies expended about 33.5 percent of revenues on toll collection operations, administration, and enforcement costs.

Tolling Agency	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Average Across Years
TOTAL OPERATING COSTS (in $000s)
Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA)	$29,460	$32,362	$31,516	$32,909	$33,994	$32,048
Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC)	N/A	$25,627	$25,428	$30,554	$30,919	$28,132
Dulles Toll Road	N/A	N/A	$36,758	$34,737	$38,639	$36,711
Dulles Greenway	N/A	$9,706	$13,164	$10,868	$12,468	$11,552
Denver E-470 ExpressToll	$21,393	$29,180	$25,746	$26,419	$36,717	$27,891
Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (FTE)	N/A	N/A	$227,238	$254,883	$258,891	$247,004
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA)	$127,900	$134,995	$148,808	$149,949	$164,888	$145,308
New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA)	$230,141	$316,896	$326,309	$341,768	$365,797	$316,182
North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA)	N/A	N/A	$48,796	$52,794	$61,047	$54,212
New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA)	$160,820	$173,726	$182,406	$212,303	$194,960	$184,843
Orlando–Orange County Expressway (OOCEA)	$38,027	$45,620	$46,211	$52,563	$52,206	$46,925
Ohio Turnpike Commission (OTC)	$64,071	$67,333	$73,057	$72,035	$73,468	$69,993
San Diego I-15 Express Lanes	N/A	N/A	$2,225	$1,541	$1,385	$1,717
California SR 91 Express Lanes	N/A	$12,607	$14,506	$15,078	$15,447	$14,410
Toronto 407 Express Toll Route (ETR)	$62,825	$66,141	$68,800	$67,945	$86,522	$70,447
Average Across Agencies	$91,830	$83,109	$84,731	$90,423	$95,157	$85,825
TOTAL REVENUES (in $000s)
Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA)	$130,399	$139,471	$141,057	$143,843	$144,835	$139,921
Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC)	N/A	$78,856	$79,421	$80,154	$85,503	$80,984
Dulles Toll Road	N/A	N/A	$43,727	$65,533	$64,931	$58,064
Dulles Greenway	$58,895	$73,584	$77,788	$92,185	$94,373	$79,365
Denver E-470 ExpressToll	N/A	N/A	$598,762	$647,959	$681,615	$642,779
Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (FTE)	N/A	$40,725	$45,433	$55,294	$55,925	$49,344
Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA)	$433,495	$418,721	$612,237	$585,095	$608,440	$531,598
New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA)	$606,620	$747,932	$751,381	$784,919	$796,259	$737,422
North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA)	N/A	N/A	$177,472	$191,434	$202,676	$190,527
New York State Thruway Authority (NYSTA)	$427,184	$439,583	$511,191	$554,363	$540,321	$494,528
Orlando–Orange County Expressway (OOCEA)	$154,726	$169,725	$178,830	$194,292	$204,641	$180,443
Ohio Turnpike Commission (OTC)	$182,740	$192,451	$182,014	$186,945	$200,471	$188,924
San Diego I-15 Express Lanes	N/A	N/A	$2,211	$1,617	$1,496	$1,775
California SR 91 Express Lanes	N/A	$32,375	$39,584	$44,238	$49,838	$41,509
Toronto 407 Express Toll Route (ETR)	$265,511	$318,109	$361,995	$391,375	$525,365	$372,471
Average Across Agencies	$282,446	$241,048	$253,540	$267,950	$283,779	$265,753

Additional analysis attempted to exclude capital and maintenance costs related to physical infrastructure from the seven toll collection systems listed below. The analysis found that toll collection costs as a percent of revenues ranged from 14 percent to 20 percent, and the cost per transaction ranged from $0.23 to $0.56 (WSDOT, 2007).

Toll System	Toll Collection Costs as a Percentage of Revenues
E-470	14%
Caltrans Bridges	16%
Golden Gate Bridge	15%
Tobin Bridge	16%
TCA	17.6%
SR-91	16%
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway	20%

The capital costs for toll collection activities can vary considerably depending on the type of collection system implemented, system objectives, implementation rate, and funding availability. In addition, some agencies may incur start-up costs such as design and implementation costs while other agencies, with more mature systems, may be able to make more gradual upgrades.

The following data excerpted from Table 27 shows a wide range of capital costs for improvements implemented between 2003 and 2007.

Toll Road Agency	Improvement	Total Capital Costs	Cost Per Year	Cost Per Centerline Mile
Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA)	Design and installation of an ITS system	$20,010,000	$10,005,000	$1,725,000
Dulles Greenway	Toll collection equipment	$56,137,545	$11,227,509	$4,009,825
Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise (FTE)	Intelligent Transportation System and Fiber Optic Improvements, Mainline Intelligent Transportation System and Fiber Optic Improvements, Polk, and Suncoast Addition of Sun Pass Lanes Conversion, Sawgrass Open Road Tolling Plaza and Express Lane Conversion, Mainline Toll System Technology Upgrades on the Mainline	$166,200,000	$41,550,000	$618,369
North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA)	Toll equipment for Lewisville Lake Bridge and the NTTA system	$5,742,321	-	-
Ohio Turnpike Commission (OTC)	Conversion to ETC	$9,703,412	$9,703,412	-
Orlando–Orange County Expressway (OOCEA)	Toll equipment and buildings	$156,978,000	$31,395,600	$1,569,780
Toronto 407 Express Toll Route (ETR)	Toll equipment, transponders, operations center, office equipment, and computer equipment	$182,856,744	$20,317,416	$2,728,788

Sources: CTRMA (2005), Florida’s Turnpike System (2007, 2008), NTTA (2007), OTC (2007, 2008), OOCEA (2007), Toll Road Investors Partnership (2007), and 407 International Inc. (2007).

Notes

See Also:
Florida’s Turnpike System, An Enterprise Fund of the Florida Department of Transportation, 2007 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Fiscal year ended 30 June 2007.

Florida’s Turnpike System, An Enterprise Fund of the Florida Department of Transportation, 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Fiscal year ended 30 June 2008.

Ohio Turnpike Commission. Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. For year ended 31 December 2008.

Orlando–Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA). Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. For the fiscal years ended 30 June 2004, through 30 June 2008

Toll Road Investors Partnership II L.P. (A Virginia Limited Partnership). Financial statements for the years ended 31 December, 2007 and 2006.

407 International Inc. Consolidated Financial Statements. Years ended 31 December 2007 and 2006.