Company scraps planned toll hike on NS Cobequid Pass

HALIFAX — The Province of Nova Scotia and the operator of the privately-owned Cobequid Pass announced that motorists and truckers will get a break from a planned toll hike.

Highway 104 Western Alignment Corp. has agreed to cancel the rate increase on Nova Scotia’s only toll highway for 2006 in return for the right to set its own toll rate schedule depending on traffic volumes. The company also cited higher than expected traffic volumes and revenues for its decision, according to Canadian Press.

Tolls for commercial trucks were supposed to go up 50 cents per axle. Truckers operating vehicles over five tones currently have to cough up $3 per axle to use the 45-km Cobequid Pass.

Transportation and Public Works Minister Ron Russell signed a new agreement with the corporation and its bond holders which gives the corporation “the authority and ability to manage the timing of toll increases” if current traffic levels are maintained, Russell said in a statement.

Under the original agreement, negotiated in 1997, toll increases were on a set schedule. This time tolls were set to jump even as the corporation was making more money than expected.

The corporation expects to pay down the debt on the privately built four-lane highway at a faster rate than anticipated — by 2018 — provided current traffic levels are maintained.
About 6,200 cars and 1,800 trucks a day travelled the Cobequid Pass last year.

— from Canadian Press