Mississauga

Mississauga’s Mark IV set to be dominant e-tollster in U.S.

The Canadians of Mark IV Industries look like winning two contracts that will establish their dominance in e-tolling in the northeast and the mid-west. That gives them a lock on electronics for two thirds of the U.S. $5 billion tolling business. A $37m bid by system integrator Syntonic using Mark IV e toll equipment for the Illinois tollway system would see the partially installed AT/Comm system on Chicago-area tollroads scrapped and replaced by the Canadian equipment. Mark IV’s e-toll equipment is already going into the top tolling markets of New York and New Jersey where there are four major toll road systems and a score of major toll bridges and tunnels. It is also the chosen technology for Pennsylvania, another big future market. Virginia’s several toll systems have gone with Mark IV. Between Virginia and Pennsylvania lie Maryland and Delaware, now under great pressure to use Mark IV for interoperability on the Baltimore harbor tunnels and the Chesapeake Bay bridge and the toll roads of I-95 and DE-1. With Illinois changing to the Canadian system the two toll systems between it and Pennsylvania — the Ohio and Indiana turnpikes — seem likely to opt for it too.

Mark IV amazed industry observers by supporting a Syntonic bid for the Chicago area toll job that would scrap the existing AT/Comm system that is about a third complete, redo it and and complete the job with 600,000 e-tags for $37m. Leaving the existing AT/Comm equipment in place and finishing the job with AT/Comm would cost $42m in Syntonic’s bid. Observers say Mark IV is taking advantage of economies of scale in its enormous production of tags and readfers for New York and prospective big orders from New Jersey.

The Illinois tollway’s board discussed the bids late August but made no decision with a spokesman saying it was such an important project they simply wanted more time to consider it. But given good reports from New York about the Mark IV equipment plus the attraction of interoperability with the east coast, it is difficult to see how the Illinois tollway can turn down the clear low bid, and this will likely have occurred by the time this newsletter arrives.

This would be a rerun of Mark IV’s triumph over the then market leader Amtech of Dallas TX when the New York State Thruway scrapped its partially-done Amtech system to install the Canadian equipment in 1995.

Mark IV’s second reported coup is the contract to provide transponders for the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority (BAFEPBA) for the Peace Bridge between Buffalo New York and Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. The project is attracting intense competition because it could set a standard for e-tags for all fifty odd North American border crossings, according to industry people. Unlike Europe, where border controls are being scrapped, in North America they are being maintained and automated. 13 agencies are represented at the US-Canada border. The Authority had no comment on the report when we inquired but it is clear an announcement is close.

The Chicago area e-toll job is the second last major project in the U.S. in which the technology is open, the other being Florida’s Turnpike, an on-and-off project that has recently been deferrred yet again. The Florida pike is 7th ranking in revenue. The Illinois tollway and the Pennnsylvania turnpike are the largest toll agencies in the U.S. after the big four NY/NJ agencies (Triboro, Port Authority, NY Thruway and NJ Turnpike) in terms of revenue — around $300m/yr. The Illinois pike consists of 4 tollways 438km in length servicing the fastest growing western half of the Chicago metro area. It also provides the major links to neighboring states and points west and northwest. Major expansions of the system are in process with legislative authority to add four sections totalling 113km (See TR#6, Aug 96, p7.) Tolling is conducted at 55 toll plazas with 335 toll lanes, though with extensions and plaza rebuilds more toll lanes are coming along.

The pike already has about half its toll lanes equipped with the AT/Comm electronic readers but only about 17,000 e-tags are in use on a system that does close to 2m toll transactions weekdays. The AT/Comm system, called I-Pass in Illinois, became available to the public November 1993 but compared to some other systems was very slowly introduced. Nearly 3 years after rollout e-tags only accounted for 1.5% of transactions on the Illinois toll system, according to Neal MacDonald, Manager for Toll Services. MacDonald told us the Authority had no complaint about the AT/Comm system but decided to make the request for proposals an open one in order to ensure that all options were considered and the Chicago area motorists offered the best electronic toll equipment at the best price.

With the AT/Comm equipment the turnpike made no marketing effort to shift patrons to electronic tolling, industry sources say, preferring a cautious and gradual approach. In the work to be performed under the new contract Syntonic will redo the whole system and integrate electronics into it more fully. Mark IV is collaborating with Nippondenso of Japan to provide a modified version of Mark IV's standard Fusion tag which will include an LCD display to give more information to drivers.

The $37 million dollar bid covers the replacement of e-toll equipment in approximately 196 toll lanes at 22 plazas and the installation of new equipment at an additional 304 toll lanes at some 40 additional toll plazas. This includes about 70 toll lanes and 7 plazas on roadways currently under construction.

The other bidder on this project, Unisys bid $48 million to retain the existing AT/Comm equipment and use compatible equipment for the new toll plazas.

The contract will provide for the new e-toll system to be fully operational at all 62 toll plazas expected to be operating by the end of 1998. By that time they hope to have issued 400,000 new tags and have a target of 600,000 tags by the year 2000, represent a target market share of 45%. (Contacts Syntonic, Chuck Meyers 619 552 4757, Illinois Tollway 630 241 6800x2381)

The war for peace bridge

Mark IV started at an advantage because the Peace Bridge project specified interoperability with the Mark IV system in use on the New York State Thruway and on the soon-to-open H-407 in Ontario. It seems likely similar tags will be used at other Niagara River Crossings between Ontario and New York and the three Detroit and St. Clair River Crossings between Ontario and Michigan. The Ambassador Bridge at Detroit MI to Windsor, Ont. seems likely to be next to automate.

BAFEPBA's request is for technical and cost proposals to "design,

install, and maintain a system using vehicle-to-roadside communications

(VRC)” to meet the needs of customs, immigration, tolls, and transport authorities at the Peace Bridge. The system will generally permit non-stop border crossing by regular users without any black marks in their records.

To begin there will be only 1,500 enrolled automobiles and 500 enrolled commercial motor vehicles. The cars will use Type 2 (read-write) transponders and the trucks Type 3 (read-write-and signal). The commercial transponders will be hooked into the truck power supply and will have an RS-232 interface for sharing data with a truck computer, whereas the car tags will be battery powered velcro-fixed. The truck transponders seem very similar in capabilitiies to the commerical vehicle operations e-tags used on I-75 Advantage and the HELP truck routes in the U.S. and the AVION H-401 system in Canada which is presently catered to by the GM subsidiaries Delco and Hughes, so some Mark IV/Hughes collaboration seems logical. LED visual displays of red and green will signal drivers to pass or stop for inspection and checks. (Contact Tony Braunscheidel, BAEFEPBA 716 884 6744 ext 242; Paul Manuel Mark IV 905 624 3025)