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Date Published: 21/02/2023

ARCHIVED - New toll roads in Spain set to rake in 5 billion a year

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A minimum investment of 10 billion is needed to improve high capacity roads in Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - New toll roads in Spain set to rake in 5 billion a year

Some kind of pay-per-use system for Spain’s motorways will have to be implemented by July 2025, as this is the deadline agreed to in the Recovery Plan with Brussels. However, the Ministry of Transport is remaining tight-lipped on what exactly the new system will look like and negotiations on the tolls with infrastructure group Seopan are going nowhere fast.

At the moment, Spain is the only country in Europe where every taxpayer is expected to pay for the roads, whether they drive on them or not, according to the group, and a fairer pay-per-use strategy could generate 5 billion euros a year for the upkeep of the country’s infrastructure.

“The reform must be left out of the political debate and focus on resolving the inconsistency of Spain in the EU”, Julian Núñez, president of Seopan, insisted, adding that the government will have to begin charging for the use of all high-capacity roads, since a minimum investment of 10.6 billion is needed to cover costs like road safety, sustainability and general modernisation.

“It is the only alternative, as Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Austria already do it, all of Europe does it except Spain,” he said.

Much to the relief of motorists, the Spanish government has confirmed that tolls on dual-carriageways and highways won’t be implemented anytime soon, but Seopan believes that this deferral tactic has more to do with the upcoming elections than consideration for drivers.

To this end, Mr Núñez believes that Spain will ask Brussels for an extension and delay the implementation of tolls by “at least one year” as Germany has recently done.

Of the 173.5 billion euros in funds granted by the EU, only 6.7% - 11.6 billion – has been allocated to infrastructure.

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