The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) is counting down the hours to when toll collectors will be removed from the low-traffic-volume New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202), Portland-Columbia (Routes 611, 46, 94), and Milford-Montague (Route 206) Toll Bridges.
Cash service at the three toll bridges is scheduled to end 11 p.m. Sunday, June 16, thereby making Monday, June 17, the first full day when those bridges will offer motorists only two toll payment options: E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE.
As a result of this conversion, the Commission will further join ranks with a growing national trend in which toll agencies are ending cash collections and offering only all-electronic payment options that are safer, better for the environment, and less expensive to collect.
Toll Assessment
With cashless tolling in place, the Commission’s electronic tolling equipment will assess the toll charges for E-ZPass-equipped motorists and for motorists who do not have E-ZPass. The payment process for E-ZPass users will remain unchanged. However, a non-E-ZPass-equipped motorist will have his/her vehicle license plate image captured by overhead cameras. The registered vehicle owner will then be sent a TOLL-BY-PLATE bill after 30 days or once the recorded tolled trips on that vehicle exceeds $50, whichever comes first.
Prompt payment prevents the assessment of additional fees and possible future penalties.
The Commission began offering a system-wide TOLL BY PLATE payment option in late January, the first step in a phased-in conversion to cashless all-electronic tolling (AET) at all toll bridges to be completed by January 2025. (Note: Tolls are charged only in the Pennsylvania-bound direction at all DRJTBC tolling points.)
TOLL BY PLATE involves the capturing of a vehicle’s license plate information so the registered owner can be mailed a bill for payment. TOLL BY PLATE rates are up to twice as much as E-ZPass due to the inherently higher costs of billing and processing payments. The Commission’s TOLL BY PLATE car toll is $3, the same as the current cash rate. In comparison, the E-ZPass car toll is $1.50.
Motorist Impacts
Motorists who currently use cash to pay their tolls will encounter some changes when the three low-volume toll bridges go cashless on June 17.
First, they’ll find that toll booths will no longer have attendants and toll booth doors and windows will be closed.
Second, all toll lanes be able to handle both E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE transactions. There will not be separate lanes for E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE customers
Third, toll booths will have signage directing motorists to keep moving.
TOLL BY PLATE Payments
A TOLL BY PLATE bill payment can be mailed, or the billed individual can go online to pay with a credit card through the New Jersey E-ZPass website. Individuals wishing to pay their toll bill by cash currently have limited options: they can either travel to the New Jersey E-ZPass Customer Service Center’s walk-in centers in Newark, N.J., Camden, N.J. and New Castle, DE. Those addresses are available at this webpage: https://www.ezpassnj.com/en/about/csc.shtml.
If payment is not received by the bill’s prescribed deadline (usually 30 days of issuance), a second bill gets generated with an additional $5 toll bill late fee.
Failure to pay this second billing on time results in the TOLL BY PLATE bill being escalated to a toll violation. The $5 toll bill late fee gets reversed, and a $30 administration fee is assessed for each overdue toll transaction. A violation notice is then mailed to the vehicle owner. If the new escalated amount owed remains unpaid by the violation notice’s payment deadline, a second violation notices gets generated. If that remains unpaid, the violation is advanced to a collection agency.
Get E-ZPass to Avoid Higher Toll Rates and Possible Fees, Penalties
E-ZPass is the most convenient, efficient, and cheapest option for paying tolls. The Commission’s 2024 toll rates for E-ZPass transactions are up to 50-percent less than the rates for cash and TOLL BY PLATE transactions.
To establish an E-ZPass account with the Commission’s toll-processing service provider – the regional New Jersey E-ZPass Customer Service Center – go to: www.ezpassnj.com. If an individual has questions or needs assistance, the Commission’s customer service number is 800-363-0049.
E-ZPass is far and away the most used payment method at Commission toll bridges. System-wide, more than 86 percent of toll transactions involve E-ZPass. The E-ZPass penetration rates for the three bridges shifting to cashless tolling on June 17 are:
- New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) – 93 percent
- Portland-Columbia – 86 percent
- Milford-Montague – 84 percent.
Historical Background
The removal of toll collectors at the three low-volume toll bridges will end decades of cash service at those locations. With only a relatively brief interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the respective bridges have handled in-lane cash transactions since opening to traffic (with tolls then collected in both directions) on the following dates:
- Portland-Columbia – December 1, 1953
- Milford-Montague – December 30, 1953
- New Hope-Lambertville – July 22, 1971
Five Other Toll Bridges Unaffected
The Commission’s five other toll bridges are unaffected by the upcoming cashless conversions of the Milford-Montague, Portland-Columbia, and New Hope-Lambertville Toll Bridges.
The Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1); I-78; Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22); and Delaware Water Gap (I-80) Toll Bridges will continue handle cash transactions in addition to E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE for at least six more months. They are slated to go cashless by January 2025. A firm start date is expected to be announced later this year. The Scudder Falls Toll Bridge has been a fully cashless operation since its first span opened in 2019.
Next Steps Toward System-wide Cashless All-Electronic Tolling (AET)
The upcoming cashless tolling conversions is the latest step in a multi-year process to convert all DRJTBC tolling points to unobstructed AET. Currently, only the Scudder Falls Toll Bridge has such capability.
A “hard conversion phase” of the legacy tolling points will involve removal of existing barrier toll plazas and the design and construction of highway-speed all-electronic tolling gantries at each of these locations. The design work of this “hard-conversion” process is expected to begin in a couple months and the first bridge to be outfitted with a cashless gantry would be the New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge sometime in 2025.
The plan is to convert one bridge each year, a process currently projected to be completed no later than 2032.
