Toll roads with vignettes, a solution for the AP-7?

A few weeks ago, the Parliament of Catalonia approved a motion presented by the Comuns parliamentary group and endorsed by the votes of ERC, PSC, Junts, and the CUP to introduce a new vignette payment system for vehicles that circulate daily on the AP-7, an essential communication artery for the country's mobility that has been on the verge of collapse since the lifting of the old toll booths in September 2021.

The end of the toll system on the AP-7 five years ago has led to a very substantial increase in traffic on this road between Alicante and La Jonquera, especially on sections with two lanes per direction or near important cities and industrial and logistics hubs. The rise in heavy traffic, particularly trucks, has led to the saturation of several sections and the deterioration of the highway's asphalt, as well as insufficient maintenance which materializes in abandoned vehicles on the shoulders, neglected vegetation, or potholes and puddles that worsen traffic.

The proposal approved by Parliament does not foresee a return to the old toll system, nor does it propose a single annual payment system. The proposal foresees a new vignette system that identifies vehicles at the moment of accessing the highway and until they leave the AP-7, applying a variable tariff based on kilometers traveled, vehicle weight, and its emissions.

At this point, it is worth remembering that practically half of the more than 40,000 vehicles that cross the La Jonquera border daily are trucks, driven by the lack of a railway alternative that adequately channels the commercial flows of the Mediterranean arc and a large part of Southern Europe. In fact, the Ministry of Transport itself has stated that it estimates that the toll exemption on the AP-7 has led to an 80% increase in heavy vehicle traffic. This reality is dramatically exacerbated during the summer months, due to the increase in travel to coastal areas due to foreign tourism and immigrants of Moroccan origin who travel to their country during holidays from France, Belgium, or the Netherlands, among others, crossing the Peninsula.

However, the government of the Generalitat de Catalunya and its Parliament do not have the necessary powers or ownership of this high-capacity road and, therefore, it will be the central administration of the State, in this case the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility of the Spanish government, who will have to decide on the proposal presented by the Catalan Parliament.

Improvements worth 500 million, up in the air

The various studies put out to tender by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility have concluded that an investment of more than 500 million euros would be necessary to carry out improvements at four strategic points on the AP-7 in Catalonia, such as the construction of a third lane per direction between Amposta and l'Hospitalet de l'Infant (a section of about 38 kilometers), a fourth lane per direction between Vilafranca del Penedès and Martorell (about 25 kilometers), the construction of a fourth lane per direction between the B-23 and Martorell (about 9 kilometers), and the construction of a fourth lane per direction between Montornès del Vallès and Sant Celoni (a section of 30 kilometers).

With the projected expansions and without a concrete action plan pending administrative, budgetary, and environmental procedures, the central and regional administrations have signed a four-year agreement that foresees a joint contribution of 250 million euros to carry out improvements in about fifteen junctions and communication nodes to improve fluidity and avoid the generation of traffic jams. 

A deadlock without a resolution date

At this time, the AP-7 is in a state of constant saturation, especially visible this August or during any departure and arrival operation, with significant economic repercussions and causing inconvenience and frustration to regular users of the road. Lacking the construction of a Mediterranean rail corridor that allows channeling flows between the ports of Valencia, Tarragona, and Barcelona with France, and a plan to strengthen and improve traffic for the millions of users (many of them foreign) who use it for free during the summer months, the AP-7 will continue to be the main headache of the Catalan road network.

In parallel, some experts point out that implementing a toll sticker payment system could lead to thousands of trucks returning to conventional roads like the N-340, with an increase in the risk of accidents and fatalities that these roads accumulated before the AP-7 became free. In fact, some studies by the Servei Català de Trànsit (SCT) indicate that making the Mediterranean highway free has meant savings of around 2,200 annual fatal victims in Catalonia.