Electronic toll collection (ETC) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative which is replacing toll booths, where vehicles must stop and the driver manually pays the toll with cash or a card. In most systems, vehicles using the system are equipped with an automated radio transponder device. When the vehicle passes a roadside toll reader device, a radio signal from the reader triggers the transponder, which transmits back an identifying number which registers the vehicle's use of the road, and an electronic payment system charges the user the toll. A major advantage is the driver does not have to stop, reducing traffic delays. Electronic tolling is cheaper than a staffed toll booth, reducing transaction costs for government or private road owners. The ease of varying the amount of the toll makes it easy to implement road congestion pricing, including for high-occupancy lanes, toll lanes that bypass congestion, and city-wide congestion charges. The payment system usually requires users to sign up in advance and load money into a declining-balance account, which is debited each time they pass a toll point.
E‑ZPass is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges and toll tunnels in the Midwestern United States, Eastern United States and Southern United States. The E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) consists of member agencies in several states, which use the same technology and allow travelers to use the same transponder on toll roads throughout the network. Since its creation in 1987, various independent systems that use the same technology have been folded into the E-ZPass system, including the I-PASS in Illinois and the NC Quick Pass in North Carolina. Negotiations are ongoing for nationwide interoperability in the United States.
CityLink is a network of tollways in Melbourne, Australia, linking the Tullamarine, West Gate and Monash Freeways and incorporating Bolte Bridge, Burnley Tunnel and other works. In 1996, Transurban was awarded the contract to augment two existing freeways and construct two new toll roads – labelled the Western and Southern Links – directly linking a number of existing freeways to provide a continuous, high-capacity road route to, and around, the central business district. CityLink uses a free-flow tolling electronic toll collection system, called e-TAG. CityLink is currently maintained by Lendlease Services.
EastLink is a tolled section of the M3 freeway linking a large area through the eastern and south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. It is a part of Melbourne's Metropolitan Ring Road project.
The Westlink M7 or M7 Motorway, formerly Western Sydney Orbital, is a tolled urban motorway in Sydney and is a part of the Sydney Orbital Network. Owned by the NorthWestern Roads (NWR) Group, it connects three motorways: M5 South-West Motorway at Prestons, M4 Western Motorway at Eastern Creek and M2 Hills Motorway at Baulkham Hills. It opened on 16 December 2005, eight months ahead of schedule.
Transurban is a road operator company that manages and develops urban toll road networks in Australia, Canada and the United States. It is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the toll plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some installations, ORT may also reduce congestion at the plazas by allowing more vehicles per hour/per lane. The disadvantage to ORT is the possibility of "leakage"; that is, "violators" who do not pay. Leakage may either be written off as an expense by the toll operator, or offset in part or whole by fees and fines collected against the violators.
The Cross City Tunnel is a 2.1-kilometre long (1.3 mi) twin-road tunnel tollway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The tunnel links Darling Harbour on the western fringe of the central business district to Rushcutters Bay in the Eastern Suburbs. Each of the twin tunnels has a different alignment, with the westbound tunnel running underneath William Street and Park Streets and the eastbound tunnel running underneath Bathurst Street.
The Eastern Distributor is a 4.7-kilometre-long (2.9 mi) motorway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Part of the M1, the motorway links the Sydney central business district with Sydney Airport. The centre-piece is a 1.7 km (1.1 mi) tunnel running from Woolloomooloo to Surry Hills. Built as a build-own-operate-transfer project, it is 75.1% owned by Transurban.
The M7 Clem Jones Tunnel (CLEM7), known during its development as the North-South Bypass Tunnel (NSBT), is a A$3.2 billion motorway grade toll road under the Brisbane River, between Woolloongabba and Bowen Hills in Brisbane, Queensland. The tunnel was progressively opened to traffic from late on 15 March 2010 until just after midnight on 16 March 2010. It was completely open by 12:02 am.
The Airport Link is a tunnelled, motorway grade, toll road in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It connects the Brisbane central business district and the Clem Jones Tunnel to the East-West Arterial Road which leads to the Brisbane Airport. It was built in conjunction with the Windsor to Kedron section of the Northern Busway in approximately the same corridor.
The Hills Motorway is a tollway in north-western Sydney, Australia, owned by toll road operator Transurban. It forms majority of Sydney's M2 route and part of the 110 km Sydney Orbital Network, with Lane Cove Tunnel constituting the rest of the M2 route. The M2 is also part of the National Highway west of Pennant Hills Road. It was known as the North West Transport Link during planning in the early 1990s.
The M5 Motorway is a 29-kilometre-long (18 mi) motorway located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is designated with the M5 route and forms part of the Sydney Orbital Network. The M5 route number comprises two connected parts, separately owned and operated:
i-Zoom was the former name for the electronic toll collection system used on the Indiana Toll Road (ITR), which now uses the E-ZPass system. On June 27, 2007, the system was implemented from mile 1 to mile 23 of the road under the unique branding of "i-Zoom", which was fully compatible with E-ZPass and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority's I-Pass system; the remaining toll plazas came online on April 1, 2008, with increased cash toll rates. i-Zoom transponders were then made available for purchase at service plazas and CVS/pharmacy locations in northern Indiana. As of September 2012, the i-Zoom branding was retired by the ITR for the universal E-ZPass branding used by most states in the E-ZPass system; outside of the implementation of a transponder with a smaller form factor and the removal of the i-Zoom logo from post-September 2012 transponder units, along with a website upgrade in 2014, no other changes to transponders or accounts are planned.
eToll is a National Roads Authority run interoperability system allowing cashless payment on all of Ireland's toll roads. Based on an RFID tag attached to the windscreen of a participating vehicle, it allows drivers to travel on the tolled sections of them M1, M4, M6, M7, M8 and M50 as well as the East Link, N25 Waterford bypass, Dublin Port Tunnel, and the Limerick (Shannon) Tunnel.
Australian toll roads are found in the eastern states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Most of the toll roads are within the urban limits of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with the exception of Toowoomba Bypass in Toowoomba, Queensland.
Linkt is Transurban's e-TAG tolling brand in Australia. Linkt first replaced the Roam Express brand in Sydney in 2017, followed by the go via brand in Queensland in May 2018, and then the Citylink brand in Melbourne in July that year. In August 2020, it also replaced the E-way brand that was used by Interlink Roads, the operator of M5 South-West Motorway and fully-owned by Transurban since October 2019.
NorthConnex is a 9-kilometre (5.6 mi) twin-tube motorway tunnel in northern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, opened on 31 October 2020. It acts as a tunnel bypass of the congested Pennant Hills Road, connecting the M1 Pacific Motorway to the M2 Hills Motorway. Owned by NorthWestern Roads (NWR) Group, it is one of the longest road tunnels in Australia along with the M8 Tunnel. It is also the deepest road tunnel in Australia, with more than half of the tunnel 60 metres (200 ft) deep or more, and the deepest point is underneath the Sydney Metro Northwest, about 90 metres (300 ft) below ground.
