The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced its four high-traffic-volume toll bridges – Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1), I-78, Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22), and Delaware Water Gap (I-80) – will stop accepting cash for payment of tolls on January 13, 2025.
January 12 will be the last day that toll collectors will be available to handle cash transactions at the respective bridges’ toll plazas. Cash service is scheduled to end at the four bridges 11 p.m. that evening. January 13 will then be the first full day that motorists will have only two toll-payment options – E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE — at these bridges.
Once the upcoming service switch occurs, the DRJTBC will join the growing ranks of toll agencies around the country and the world operating solely cashless all-electronic tolling (AET) collection systems.
The Commission is initiating a public awareness campaign to alert cash motorists of the upcoming switch to solely E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE collections. The campaign will include billboards near each bridge, in-lane handout cards to the dwindling percentage of motorists who still pay tolls with cash, variable message boards at the respective toll plazas, window signage at the remaining cash toll booths, and news releases such as this one.
The Commission began transitioning to cashless collections with the 2019 opening of the Scudder Falls (I-295) Toll Bridge’s first completed span, which has a highway-speed AET gantry. In June of this year, the Commission began AET service at its three low-traffic toll bridges — New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202), Portland-Columbia (Routes 611/46/94) and Milford-Montague (Route 206).
The Commission began offering a system-wide TOLL BY PLATE payment option in late January 2024, the pivotal step in a phased-in system-wide conversion to AET. (Note: Tolls are charged only in the Pennsylvania-bound direction at all DRJTBC tolling points.)
TOLL BY PLATE involves the capturing of a vehicle’s license plate information so the registered owner can be mailed a bill for payment. TOLL BY PLATE rates are up to twice as much as E-ZPass due to the inherently higher costs of billing and processing payments. The Commission’s TOLL BY PLATE car toll is $3. In comparison, the E-ZPass car toll is $1.50.
Motorist Impacts
Motorists who currently use cash to pay their tolls will encounter some changes when the four high-volume toll bridges go cashless on January 13.
First, they’ll find that toll booths will no longer have attendants, and toll booth doors and windows will be closed.
Second, only a limited number of toll lanes may be open at a toll plaza. Any open lane will be able to handle both E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE transactions. There will not be separate lanes for E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE customers, however, trucks are limited to a single toll lane (on the right) at the Easton-Phillipsburg Bridge’s toll plaza.
Third, toll booths will have signage directing motorists to keep moving.
Get E-ZPass to Avoid Higher Toll Rates and Possible Fees, Penalties
E-ZPass is the most convenient, efficient, and cheapest option for paying tolls. The Commission’s 2024 toll rates for E-ZPass transactions are up to 50-percent less than the rates for cash and TOLL BY PLATE transactions.
To establish an E-ZPass account with the Commission’s toll-processing service provider – the regional New Jersey E-ZPass Customer Service Center – go to: www.ezpassnj.com. If an individual has questions or needs assistance, the Commission’s customer service number is 800-363-0049.
E-ZPass is far and away the most used payment method at Commission toll bridges. System-wide, more than 86 percent of toll transactions involve E-ZPass. The E-ZPass penetration rates for the four bridges shifting to cashless tolling on January 13 are:
- Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1) – 84 percent
- I-78 – 84 percent
- Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22) – 86 percent
- Delaware Water Gap (I-80) – 82 percent
Toll Assessment
With cashless tolling in place, the Commission’s electronic tolling equipment will assess the toll charges for E-ZPass-equipped motorists and for motorists who do not have E-ZPass. The payment process for E-ZPass users will remain unchanged. However, a non-E-ZPass-equipped motorist will have his/her vehicle license plate image captured by overhead cameras. The registered vehicle owner will then be sent an invoice after 30 days or once the recorded tolled trips on that vehicle exceed $50, whichever comes first.
Prompt payment is crucial; it prevents the assessment of additional fees and possible future penalties.
TOLL BY PLATE Payments
Payment can be mailed, or the billed individual can go online to pay with a credit card through the New Jersey E-ZPass website. Individuals wishing to pay their toll bill by cash currently have limited options: they can either travel to the New Jersey E-ZPass Customer Service Center’s walk-in centers in Newark, N.J., Camden, N.J. and New Castle, DE. Those addresses are available at this webpage: https://www.ezpassnj.com/en/about/csc.shtml.
If payment is not received by the bill’s prescribed deadline (usually 30 days of issuance), a second bill gets generated with an additional $5 toll bill late fee.
Failure to pay this second billing on time results in the TOLL BY PLATE bill being escalated to a toll violation. The $5 toll bill late fee gets reversed, and a $30 administration fee is assessed for each overdue toll transaction. A violation notice is then mailed to the vehicle owner. If the new escalated amount owed remains unpaid by the violation notice’s payment deadline, a second violation notice gets generated. If that remains unpaid, the violation is advanced to a collection agency.
Next Steps in System-wide AET Conversion
The upcoming cashless tolling conversions is the latest step in a multi-year process to convert all DRJTBC tolling points to highway-speed AET.
The next step – “hard conversion phase” – will begin in 2025 with the erection of an overhead gantry of toll tag readers and cameras and the removal of the existing toll-both structure at the New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202 Toll Bridge between Delaware Township, N.J. and Solebury, PA.
The plan is for similar hard conversions to be executed at the remaining Commission toll bridges one at a time in each subsequent year, a process currently projected to be completed no later than 2032.
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