E-ZPass car toll changes coming in 2024, Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission says
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission’s frequency-based E-ZPass Commuter Discount Program will expire on January 1, 2024.
An increase in the E-ZPass toll rate for Class 1 vehicles (cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, motorcycles) is set to begin January 7, 2024. The E-ZPass toll for Class 1 vehicles with a trailer in tow also will rise. All other toll rates remain the same.
The Commission on March 29, 2021 approved the following table of adjusted rates to be charged at the Commission’s eight toll bridges: Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1), Scudder Falls (I-295), New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202), I-78, Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22), Portland-Columbia, Delaware Water Gap (I-80), and Milford-Montague (Route 206).
The 2024 toll rates and discount changes apply only to E-ZPass transactions involving passenger vehicles and passenger vehicles with a bumber-hitched trailer in tow.
The following toll table will take effect in January 2024:
Please go to www.drjtbc.org/tollcomments for more information on the public comment process that was used prior to adoption of the new toll rates.
What’s new in 2024?
The 2024 toll schedule has only limited changes compared to the prior toll schedule of April 2021. These changes apply only to E-ZPass transactions involving personal vehicles (Class 1 – vehicles with up to two-axles and below 8 feet in height) and personal vehicles with bumper-hitch trailers in tow (combinations classified as Class 11). The toll rates for these transactions increase 25 cents. The Class 1 toll rises to $1.50 from the previous $1.25 rate and the Class 11 toll rises to $3.50 from the previous $3.25 rate.
The Commission’s former volume-based E-ZPass commuter discount program also expires in conjunction with this new 2024 toll rate schedule. That program had been initiated with the start of E-ZPass service at Commission toll bridges in late 2002. The program was intended to encourage E-ZPass usage. As more and more cash toll payers converted, the program was slowly scaled down to the point of being phased out completely by 2024. (Note: the program could only be applied to E-ZPass customers whose accounts were administered by the Commission’s E-ZPass service provider.) The advantage of E-ZPass usage is now built into the Commission’s toll rate rate schedule, with E-ZPass users being charged lower rates and cash and TOLL BY PLATE customers being charged higher rates.
All other 2021 toll schedule rates (Class 1 cash and TOLL BY PLATE transactions, and all Class 2 through 7 rates) remain the same under the 2024 toll schedule.
Background
The 2024 toll-rate schedule provides two-tiered rates (higher for Cash/TOLL BY PLATE transactions and lower for E-ZPass transactions). (Note: In August 2023, E-ZPass was used in more than 89 percent of the Commission’s toll transactions — 87.86 percent of passenger vehicle (Class 1, Class 11) toll transactions and 96.02 percent of non-personal-vehicle transactions (Class 2 and greater).
All-electronic toll processing (TOll BY PLATE and E-ZPass) is available only at the Scudder Falls (I-295) Toll Bridge.
All other Commission toll bridges accept only E-ZPass or cash: Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1), New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202), I-78, Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22), Portland-Columbia (Routes 94, 46, 611), Delaware Water Gap (I-80), and Milford-Montague (Route 206).
All E-ZPass-equipped vehicles — regardless of issuing agency or customer service center — qualify for the applicable E-ZPass rates listed in this toll schedule.
The per-axle rates for trucks, buses, and other vehicles 8 feet or more in height is $4.50 per axle for E-ZPass and $5 per axle for cash/TOLL BY PLATE. (Note: The Scudder Falls Toll Bridge currently is the only DRJTBC crossing with all-electronic tolling [AET] and TOLL BY PLATE service.)
