91 Express toll breaks dollar/mile for an hour on Fridays eastbound

At 91 Express Lanes (91XLs) in southern California there's now an hourly toll for the ten miles (16km) of $10.00 or $1.00/mile (60c/km) - 3pm to 4pm Fridays eastbound or Orange to Riverside counties. Toll schedules to go into effect Jan 1, 2008 increase the 1500-1600 Friday EB toll from $9.25 to $10.00.

The 4pm or 1600-1700 Friday EB toll, previously the highest at $9.50 stays put, as does the 5pm or 1700-1800 Friday EB toll at $8.00.

Wednesdays and Thursdays 3pm eastbound tolls also get increased - Thursdays from $4.95 to $5.70 and Wednesdays from $4.95 to $5.95.

New toll schedule from 2008-01-01 can be seen at:

http://www.91expresslanes.com/tollschedules_20080101.asp

Toll schedule in effect in second half of 2007:

http://www.91expresslanes.com/tollschedules.asp

Free flow must be maintained or they have nothing to sell

Free flow has to be maintained in the express lanes at all times or they have little to sell. If they were to clog up with an overload the travel time advantages over the free lanes alongside would quickly evaporate.

Most toll lane users report they save about 30 minutes per 10 mile (16km) trip. That means they make the trip in less than ten minutes while they see the trip in the free lanes as taking about 40 minutes. That's 60mph vs 15mph (100km/hr vs 24km/hr). Toll lane users regularly over-estimate their time savings. They are more likely to be saving 20 to 25 minutes than 30 with average speeds in the free lanes closer to 20mph (32km/hr).

Toll lane users get other benefits than average time savings:

- greater reliability or less variability in travel times

- absence of large trucks

- better riding surface

- quick dispatch of motorist assistance

Toll setting

Toll policy on the 91XLs is set to maintain free flow in peak hours by limiting traffic to about 1700 vehicles/lane/hour. This is achieved by setting the tolls in each one hour time slot each direction as needed to keep traffic below the level at which free flow is threatened. Toll rates are adjusted by a formalized review of the change in traffic numbers over a period of weeks and the approach to designated threshold volumes.

91XL toll policy: http://www.91expresslanes.com/generalinfo/tollpolicy.asp

Most tolls on 91XLs quite normal

The media focus on the high toll rates - which are concentrated in two or three hours in the evenings in the eastbound direction Tuesdays through Fridays when toll rates are 80c to $1.00/mile (50c to 60c/km). In the westbound direction the highest tolls are Mondays through Fridays for five hours ranging between 30c and 42c/mile (18c and 25c/km).

The 91X Lanes have quite modest toll rates most of the day 19c/mile (12c/km) and 12c/mile (7.5c/km) late at night. Weekend daytime tolls are 27c/mile (17c/km).

Average tolls not up over four years

Revenues from the 91XLs have risen strongly the past couple of years - by 63% in the past four years from $27.2m in FY2002 to $44.2m in FY2006. Average toll rates are about the same at $3.13. The rise in revenue over this period has been due to higher traffic - which has risen from annual average daily 23.8k to 36.8k.

170k transponders are on issue by the 91XL, 4.4 times the average daily traffic. That's a higher ratio than most tollroads, indicating that average users are more discriminating  about their use of the toll lanes. Most users only use the toll lanes for a minority of their trips on the 91.

Around 1999 the 91XLs lost a chunk of their traffic to the opening of the Foothill/Eastern Toll Road (CA241). Motorists making the trip between Riverside county and the southern part of Orange County suddenly had a short way than traveling the 91XL.

It took the 91XLs until FY2003 to recover their 1998 level of traffic.

History

91 Express Lanes are now owned by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) and operated by Cofiroute, the French-based international toll operator under policies laid down by OCTA. The Lanes were designed, financed, built and initially operated by California Private Transportation Company (CPTA) in which Keiwit builders and Cofiroute were the major shareholders under a 35 year concession with the state of California, opening at the end of 1995.

In 2003 the concession was bought by OCTA in a sale which covered CPTC's investment of $130m and gave them an extra $80m as a return on their investment. The county wanted the concession bought out because its non-compete clause prevented additions to free lanes along the corridor.

Accounts

OCTA has longterm debt of around $220m which was used to purchase the toll concession from CPTA in 2003 so they need to have it on a businesslike footing. In FY2006 revenues of $44.2m were offset by operating costs of $14.5m before amortization and depreciation for cash flow of $29.7m.

It charged $9.1m for amortization and depreciation and had interest expenses of $10m, so it made a profit of around $10m using corporate style accounting. OCTA as a government entity gets out of paying normal state and federal corporate income taxes.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-12-29