Pennsylvania Turnpike approves 3.5% toll hike for January, lowest since 2014

The Pennsylvania Turnpike’s annual toll increase will drop slightly to 3.5% in January, the lowest increase since 2014.

The state Turnpike Commission approved the toll hike in a unanimous vote Tuesday. The increase marks the 19th year in a row that the commission has raised rates, largely to pay off long-term debt it accumulated by borrowing money to make payments to the state Department of Transportation to cover part of the cost of public transit.

The increase that takes effect Jan. 3 will raise the cost of driving on the turnpike for passenger vehicles that use the E-ZPass transponder from 7.3 cents a mile driven to 7.5 cents, plus an increase from $1.13 to $1.17 for each overhead toll gantry a driver passes under.

Drivers who use the Toll-by Plate system, where the turnpike takes a photo of a driver’s license plate and sends them a bill in the mail, will see double the increase, from 14.6 cents a mile driven to 15 cents a mile, plus increasing the toll per gantry from $2.26 to $2.34.

The cost from Wilkes-Barre to Mid County in a passenger vehicle with E-ZPass will increase around 42 cents and the total for the trip will be $14.56.  The cost from Clarks Summit to Mid County would be around $20.18.

Richard Dreher, the turnpike’s chief financial officer, noted in an interview that even with the increase the turnpike’s cost for passenger vehicles will be 18 cents a mile. That ranks 19th out of 47 toll agencies across the country and is below the average of 20 cents a mile.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette contributed to this report.