E-Zpass car toll changes to take effect at Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission’s toll bridges in new year
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) is reminding motorists about E-ZPass passenger vehicle toll changes that are scheduled to take effect in the New Year.
The changes are as follows:
- January 1, 2024 – The Commission’s 21-year-old frequency-based commuter discount program will expire. This program currently provides a 20-percent discount. The discount gets applied retroactively as a credit on Commission-affiliated E-ZPass accounts for 16 or more trips across DRJTBC toll bridges in a calendar month. The program was started in late 2002 to incentivize E-ZPass use. The discount originally was set at 40-percent but was reduced to 20-percent in 2021 as the first part of a three-year phase-out process. The program’s last applicable month will be December 2023.
- January 7, 2024 – The E-ZPass toll rate for Class 1 vehicles will increase 25 cents to a $1.50 toll instead of the current $1.25 rate.
- January 7, 2024 – Because of the 25-cent personal vehicle toll increase, the rate for a Class 1 vehicle with a bumper-hitch trailer or vehicle in tow will increase to a $3.50 toll from the current $3.25 rate. (Note: Per-axle commercial/truck rates [$4.50 or $5 per axle] apply for Class 1 vehicles with gooseneck/fifth-wheel trailers in tow. Those rates remain unchanged.)
The above-listed changes apply only to E-ZPass transactions involving Class 1 vehicles, which are motorcycles, cars, pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs with up to two axles and less than eight feet high. All other Commission toll classifications and rates remain unchanged. This includes the current $3 Cash/TOLL BY PLATE rate for Class 1 passenger vehicles; on Jan. 7, this rate will be double that of the new comparable E-ZPass rate.
The 2024 toll rate schedule may be found on the Commission’s website at www.drjtbc.org/newtolls. The new rates were formally approved March 29, 2021 as part of a two-stage increase spread between 2021 and 2024.
The toll schedule applies uniform rates for the Commission’s eight toll bridges:
- Milford-Montague (Route 206)
- Delaware Water Gap (I-80)
- Portland-Columbia (Routes 611, 46 and 94)
- Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22)
- I-78
- New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202)
- Scudder Falls (I-295)
- Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1).
Electronic variable message boards were positioned today at the eight toll bridges to remind motorists about the impending 25-cent increase in the Commission’s E-ZPass car toll rate.
The DRJTBC classifies motor vehicles by their respective numbers of rolling axles and height. Tolls are assessed in the Pennsylvania-bound direction at all Commission tolling points. According to the Commission’s E-ZPass Penetration Rates tables, E-ZPass is used in approximately 88 percent of Class 1 passenger vehicle toll transactions each month.
The Commission is funded strictly by the tolls it collects at its eight toll bridges. It does not receive state or federal subsidies to run its transportation system and services.
The Commission is unique among other toll agencies in the region because it is legally obligated – under identical statutes enacted by both states and ratified by Congress under the Compact clause of the U.S. Constitution — to use a share of its tolls to operate and maintain 10 older low-capacity non-highway vehicular bridges and two other pedestrian-only crossings along the river. The Commission refers to these 12 spans as “toll-supported bridges” because they may be crossed free of charge.
