Dulles Gway nears 2/3 ET

The Dulles Greenway is approaching two-thirds of its transactions by transponder, one of the highest rates in the country. A toll hike of 25c for cash payments, a high miles cashback scheme (called VIP Miles Club) and a major marketing program are credited with the rise. Mark Manlove, marketing manager at the Gway says VDOT through its ET contractor Castle Rock have helped a great deal by speeding up the processing of ET-tag applications and delivering transponders to customers. Until this summer the process sometimes took 2 to 3 weeks he says, an annoying wait. Now they’ve got the turnaround time down to less than a week. The cashback for high usage scheme which started in Nov 98 now has 9,000 members. Traffic is up more than 25% over last year and the nearterm future looks bright with AOL and MCI-WorldCom/UUnet opening vast new headquarters office parks not far from Gway ICs.