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Released: 12/9/2020
No Toll Increases on DRPA Bridges in 2021
DRPA Commissioners postpone planned toll increase; approve operating budget reduction
Motorists who travel Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) bridges will not see any toll increases next year.
Today, the DRPA Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to postpone a scheduled toll increase until at least 2022. The move marks the 10th year the DRPA has gone without a toll hike on its four bridges that cross the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey: the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Commodore Barry, and Betsy Ross Bridges.
The current toll schedule, implemented in July 2011, included automatic biennial increases in tolls based upon increases in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the Philadelphia region. Today’s motion marks the fifth time that the Board postponed these planned toll increases.
In addition to voting on holding tolls at current levels, the DRPA Board approved a reduction to the 2021 annual operating budget. The budget of $305.1 million is a 0.83% decrease from 2020. In 2021, the DRPA expects to collect approximately $306.4 million in revenue generated primarily from bridge tolls and passenger rail fares. Revenue assumptions consider COVID-19 pandemic conditions continuing into 2021 with traffic continuing stable at 75% of 2019 traffic and PATCO ridership ranging between 9% to 24% of pre-COVID levels.
“The Board and DRPA leadership team has worked over the past several years to ensure that the organization runs efficiently and effectively,” said DRPA Chairman Ryan N. Boyer. “This hard work is acknowledged by a budget that freezes tolls for our customers and ensures we have the necessary resources to maintain and enhance the public assets entrusted to the DRPA.”
“The DRPA continues to maintain a strong focus on fiscal stewardship,” said Vice Chairman Jeffrey L. Nash. “The fact that we are able reduce the operating budget, invest in our public assets and infrastructure and do so without a toll increase, speaks volumes to the work of DRPA’s Board and leadership.”
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