Second Link toll charges to go up next year

[Billcoke]

Source: http://travel.asiaone.com/Travel/News/Stor...1129-38870.html

 

 

KUALA LUMPUR - VEHICLES from Singapore crossing into Johor via the Second Link Expressway will have to pay higher tolls from Jan 1, the Malaysian government announced yesterday.

 

Passenger cars using the Second Link route will have to pay RM10.80 (S$4.60) next year, compared with RM8.40 now, The Sun newspaper quoted Works Minister S. Samy Vellu as saying.

 

Rates will also go up at two other Johor toll booths.

 

At the Perling toll, passenger cars will have to pay RM2.30 compared with RM1.80 now.

 

And at the Lima Kedai booth, the toll will be increased to RM3.90 from RM3.10.

 

The government also announced a rise in toll charges for several minor highways by between 7 per cent and 50 per cent from Jan 1.

 

They include a highway that links Malaysia to Thailand, and one that links Seremban to the Port Dickson seaside town.

 

The rise in the toll rates is part of contractual obligations the government signed with companies that built and manage the highways.

 

But significantly, Datuk Seri Samy said the government will delay an increase in toll charges on the country's busiest highway, the North-South Expressway, in a move some see as aimed at pleasing voters ahead of a general election.

 

The highway, operated by state-controlled Plus Expressways, runs for 966km from Johor Baru to the Thai border.

 

But he denied the decision to delay the toll rate increase by a year was a pre-election ploy.

 

'If we take into account elections, it would be free (to use the roads),' he told reporters. 'We do not want to burden highway users.'

 

The government also delayed toll rises for four other highways, and will instead pay the five concession companies RM344 million as compensation.

 

The next general election is not due until 2009, but many political analysts expect polls to take place in the next few months.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM REUTERS

[Toyocar]

Good money for the highway operator, build the road, then sit down to see money keep coming in.