Our View – Taking A Toll

There seems to have been a great deal of confusion and mind changing over the matter of the introduction of charges on certain currently toll free motorways in Spain.

The European Union is determined that every major Spanish motorway will charge drivers for their use by 2024 in a move to try to reduce the number of cars on the road and therefore the amount of pollution.

Euro Weekly News has its headquarters on the Costa del Sol where the main motorway the AP7 not only charges but is allowed to increase the tolls charged at Easter and the Summer.

Currently the inflated summer cost to travel from Fuengirola to Manilva is €17.25c which is a 76 kilometre journey.

You can travel on the A7 which is free and allows you to drive from Malaga City to Algeciras and part of the journey is shared with cars on the AP7.

The fact is many drivers choose not to pay to travel on the AP7 which means that the A7 is constantly backed up with traffic in both directions with some guaranteed huge traffic jams which add rather than reduce the pollution generated by cars, lorries and of course the annual pilgrimage of workers from Spain, France and Italy heading for the ferries to Morocco and back.

The actual roads themselves are not in a good state of repair and it seems that little of the money generated from the tolls is actually diverted to ensuring that the highway is in good condition.

Regardless of which party or parties triumphed in last Sunday’s General Election, it seems more than likely that there will be an ongoing disagreement with the EU over the need to reintroduce tolls.