Shadow toll

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Shadow tolls are payments made by government to the private sector operator of a road based, at least in part, on the number of vehicles using the road. First proposed by the UK Government in 1993, they are currently in operation on some roads in the UK. The system of shadow tolling provides the revenue for privately-funded road schemes under the Private Finance Initiative known as the Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) programme. They have also been adopted in other countries.

Advantages of this system include that it eliminates the need for drivers to pay tolls directly, thus avoiding toll collection costs. Disadvantages include the fact that because drivers typically pay for their road use through fuel taxes, vehicle registration fees, and other charges that are not based on time of road use, it is not possible to use this system to implement congestion pricing, which would give drivers an incentive to take alternate routes, carpool, or otherwise curtail their usage of their road during rush hour.

List of shadow toll roads

Belgium,

• A605 / E25 Cointe Tunnel

Finland

• VT4 / E75 Järvenpää-Lahti

Netherlands

• A9 Wijkertunnel

Spain

• Madrid M-45 Road

UK

• A1 Darrington to Dishforth
• A1(M) Alconbury to Peterborough
• A13 Limehouse to Wennington (Greater London)^{[citation needed]}
• A19 Dishforth to Tyne Tunnel
• A249 Stockbury (M2) to Sheerness
• A30 Exeter to Bere Regis
• A417 Gloucester to Cirencester
• A419 Swindon to Cirencester
• A50 Stoke to Derby link
• A69 Carlisle to Newcastle
• M1 Lofthouse to Bramham link road
• M40 Denham to Warwick

See also

• Toll road
• Highways Agency

External links

• Highways Agency DBFO
• News related to shadow toll road

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