Charging, Tolling & Road Pricing

A decision in the dispute between the German government and Toll Collect, the operator of the HGV toll system, over the delayed introduction of the system in Germany is expected to be made by the arbitration court in the first week of October 2013. Experts believe that the German government will waive a part of its damage claims and take over Toll Collect, which is currently owned by Deutsche Telekom (45 per cent), Daimler Financial Services (45 per cent) and Cofiroute (10 per cent).

Intelligent Transport Systems Australia has praised the National Infrastructure Plan presented to the Council of Australian Governments last week. ITS Australia Chief Executive Officer Susan Harris said this Plan recognises some realities that challenge infrastructure management in Australia and it recommends a clear set of actions to force reform in policies and processes. Among the key actions recommended in the National Infrastructure Plan are: Reform of current infrastructure funding methods; Wider appl

The Venus RFID windshield tag developed by Star Systems International has received approval from the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) for use across India’s national highways. Meeting the requirements of India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Resolution H-25011/4/2011-P&P (Toll) Vol. II, the Venus windshield tag is suitable for use with India’s united electronic toll collection system across all toll plazas along the national highways. “The Venus windshield tag offers Indian

London’s Mayor’s Roads Task Force (RTF) has set out a bold new vision for the future of the city’s roads and streets to ensure the capital can cope with major population growth, support jobs and thousands of new homes, while remaining one of the most attractive, vibrant, accessible and competitive world cities. A range of proposals includes: roofing over arterial roads to create new surface space; changing the way goods and services are delivered, such as shifting HGVs and freight out of peak hours; embraci

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) is to continue its contract with Q-Free for the service and maintenance of the congestion charging infrastructure in Stockholm. The three-year contract is valued at approximately US$6 million and commences in November 2013. Congestion charges were introduced in Stockholm in 2006, first as a trial followed by a referendum, then permanently from 2007. A 2011 report published by Elsevier in mid-2011 concludes that during the first five years of operation the

A new Hong Kong-based RFID hardware provider has emerged to offer UHF RFID solutions for security, access control, electronic tolling and logistics applications. Star Systems International was formed by a group of former employees of Sirit and Federal Signal Technologies with more than forty years of experience in the automatic identification, intelligent transportation and RFID industries. Star Systems International has obtained international distribution rights for products from Star-RFID, a Thailand base

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board has approved a US$44 million contract with Chicago-based technology services company Accenture to build a new customer service and toll violation processing system. Scheduled to be in place by 2015, the system will improve how transactions from the tollway's 1.4 million daily drivers are processed and help eliminate violation errors, said Shana Whitehead, the tollway's chief of business systems. The tollway's customer service and violation processing system ha

The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) congratulated Anthony Foxx after the US Senate voted to confirm him as the next Secretary of the US Department of Transportation. Patrick D Jones, executive director and CEO of the worldwide association representing toll facility owners and operators and the businesses that serve them, said: “IBTTA congratulates Secretary Foxx on his confirmation today as the next US Secretary of Transportation. Secretary Foxx’s leadership comes at a time whe

The UK’s underused M6 toll road could be opened free to drivers stuck in congested traffic on the M6, it has been revealed. Toll road operators Midland Expressway have reportedly offered to clear the path to help relieve traffic jams on the M6 if the Government releases it from its commitment to part-finance the M54 link road. The company, a subsidiary of Australian company Macquarie Atlas Roads, has debts of £1.03 billion, which mature in 2015, and as part of its 50-year concession agreement would have to