No more queues on busy days, no more stopping too close to the terminal, no more dropping coins. The A79 motorway will become the first motorway without a toll barrier in France this Friday. This system is deployed over 88 kilometers between Montmarault (Allier) and Digoin (Saône-et-Loire) by the concessionaire Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône (APRR).
Portals equipped with cameras
However, barrier-free does not mean free of charge. You will have to pay to take this highway, but payment will be made online or at one of the 16 terminals along the route. Users will be able to circulate at the authorized speed, without slowing down or stopping, passing under gates equipped with cameras and sensors that will identify their vehicle, thanks to its license plate. A camera on the side scans the size of the vehicle, the number of axles, to make sure it’s a car or a truck. And therefore define the amount to pay.
“The customer has 72 hours to pay for his trip,” says Pierre Méau, deputy director of customers at Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône (APRR).
Otherwise, a fine of 90 euros will be added to the amount of the toll, and even 375 euros without payment in 60 days. The operator will have access to the European license plate file.
How to configure your trip
if you have an electronic toll badge, it will automatically scan, like today in the reserved lanes. A third of the motorists who circulate on the highways of this APRR network already use this type of badge.
If you don’t have one, you’ll need go to the dedicated site to this highway after driving. Enter your license plate and pay the amount by credit card.
You also can anticipate your trip: you enter your license plate, you choose the type of vehicle and the route – between which entrance and exit you will use this highway. You pay by card the amount that corresponds to your vehicle. You then have 7 days to complete the journey. You are reimbursed if you don’t take the highway in the end.
You also can create an account if you regularly take the A79 and sign up for email alerts telling you when you will be charged after your journey. Don’t panic if you don’t have an account on the dedicated site.
sixteen terminals It will be installed for those who want to pay directly. And they will take the opportunity to take a short break on their trip.
In 2024 on the A13 towards Normandy
Hand in hand with the development of digital and online payments, the State called for the adoption of free flow when it selected APRR (an Eiffage subsidiary) to build the A79. All the new highways will follow this model like the future A69 between Toulouse and Castres, says the manager.
Among the next motorways to become free flow, the Autoroute blanche (A40) in Haute-Savoie, which the company Autoroutes et tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB) intends to convert “in the medium term”, citing the quality of the road as the reason air in the Arve valley.
The system is quite widespread in many countries, between Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa, around Toronto in Canada, on the urban highways of Santiago de Chile, in many American states, on the Autostrada pedemontana lombarda near Milan in Italy, on many highways in Norway, on half of the Portuguese highways or even to enter Gothenburg or Stockholm in Sweden.
The Sanef concessionaire is also betting heavily on this free-flow toll system. In 2019, the Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l’Est de la France transformed the Boulay-Moselle link on the A4 motorway into a laboratory, removing physical barriers there in 2019. Despite some early incidents, “the system it has proven its reliability and customers have become familiar with this new payment system”, says its general manager Arnaud Quemard.
Sanef has therefore undertaken to convert the Normandy motorway, through which 32,000 cars a day, into free circulation. “On the A13 and A14 between Paris and Caen, there are five barriers, with fairly heavy commuter traffic and significant peaks on weekends. At each toll barrier, there is a stop with potentially corks,” explains Arnaud Quemard.
Time savings and lower CO2 emissions
Arnaud Quemard promises to save time, save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The investment is valued at around 120 million euros, partly covered by a modest annual increase in tolls. But contrary to what you might think, switching to free flow doesn’t save money.
“Today, at the Normandy toll, we have around 150 employees. To operate the same free-flow motorway, we will need around 300”, who will mainly deal with customer relations, says Arnaud Quemard. We have a huge challenge to retrain our staff, and we have guaranteed all our toll employees that we will find a suitable job for them”.
Source: BFM TV
