Catalonia marks this month five years since the removal of tolls on the AP-7, AP-2, C-32 north, and C-33. It cannot be said, given the consequences of that decision, that the anniversary is a cause for deep satisfaction. Especially on the Mediterranean highway, the toll-free status has been a magnet for tens of thousands of cars and trucks that previously chose toll-free secondary roads before the barriers were lifted. This Tuesday, La Vanguardia reported that the artery has already reached its peak in 2026 in terms of vehicle growth, with a cumulative increase of 45% since September 2021. There has been much speculation about how to proceed, considering that the toll removal has helped reduce accident rates. Trànsit has a roadmap in hand: to follow the Dutch path, with a barrier-free toll and a variable rate.
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The Netherlands put into service on July 1 the new toll – the almost unpronounceable vrachtwagenheffing – which only applies to trucks. Vehicles are equipped with an onboard unit (OBU) that transmits their position via satellite to tally kilometers and issue the invoice. According to the director of the Servei Català de Trànsit, Ramon Lamiel, it is “the most directly transferable reference to the AP-7.”
In a first phase, this would also apply to heavy vehicles, then gradually include passenger cars. To avoid migration to free parallel roads, Trànsit proposes that roads such as the N-340, A-2, or N-II also be incorporated into the variable toll, which in the Dutch case takes into account the truck’s weight and CO2 emissions. In this way, secondary roads that pass through towns and lack a median between traffic directions (the fatal head-on collision) would not return to the pre-toll removal situation, when mortality was 21% higher.
The variable rate, Lamiel indicates, would allow distributing vehicles to off-peak hours, which are cheaper or even free, thus easing the tremendous traffic jams currently experienced on the AP-7, especially on Friday afternoons, Saturday mornings, and Sunday afternoons. It could also alleviate the situation in the central part of the highway, passing through Vallès, where the highest peak of truck traffic in all of Spain is recorded. In any case, the head of Trànsit emphasizes that any measure taken “must aim to maintain and strengthen the dynamic of improving road safety and reducing accident rates.”
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By 2030, in fact, the commitment is to reduce the number of fatalities by 50% compared to 2019 records, the year in which 242 people lost their lives on the road. In 2025, there were 193, a 20% reduction. Things will have to improve a lot to meet this shared European goal.
The Government plans to start this month the meetings of the new working group that will be responsible for designing the toll model in Catalonia. Members from Territori and Economia are expected, as well as experts from Trànsit. Simulations carried out allow estimating the cost of the dynamic toll. The initial investment (including gantries to control that the OBU is carried) would amount to about 206 million euros, and annual operation would require another 77 million. It will be offset by the expected revenue, which could exceed 205 million per year.
On the other side of the Ebro, after the 2021 commitment that a pay-per-use system would exist in 2024 fell apart, there is no schedule or roadmap drawn up. In fact, it seems the Government is going in the opposite direction: just over a year ago, the Executive ruled out any possibility of “taking measures aimed at expanding or modifying pay-per-use.” With elections around the corner, do not expect a change of course.
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