Skyway and ITR traffic down but other Cintra roads boom

Cintra the lead investors and the managers of the Chicago Skyway and Indiana Toll Road concessions are reporting a drop in US traffic - 5% on the Skyway and 2.3% on the ITR for October this year compared to Oct 2006.

They attribute the drop to the end of construction improvements in which lanes have been added to Tristate Tollway (I-294)  and work on the Bishop Ford and Kingery expressways (I-94). On the ITR the drop in traffic has been strongest on the Barrier segment - a 6.3% drop from 71.6k to 67.1k. The barrier section of the ITR in the far west operates in conjunction with the Skyway and is affected by similar factors.

ITR ticket system traffic, the main interstate element was down 1.1%. That is rather similar to the situation on the Ohio Turnpike to the east and seems to reflectr a slowing of the US economy.

Outside the US Cintra's toll properties have strong traffic. 407ETR in Toronto is up nearly 11%, two of the newer Spanish tollroads are in double digit growth. Overall the company reports daily traffic up 9.6%. 407ETR's October rise is an outlier month but even so year-to-date growth is strong at 6.4%.

 
see http://www.cintra.es

TOLLROADSnews 2007-12-11