DRJTBC Delaware River to offer new toll option

💲The Route 202 bridge will begin Toll by Plate Wednesday

💲Six other crossings start on Jan. 24

💲All DRJTBC crossings will be cashless by Jan. 2025

Toll by Plate tolling comes to the Route 202 bridge between New Jersey and Pennsylvania Wednesday and the rest of the toll bridges the following week as the  Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission crossings move towards going cashless.

The Route 202 crossing, whose formal name is the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge, will join the Scudder Falls Bridge on Route 295 to use the system that reads the license plates of vehicles leaving New Jersey not paying their toll with E-Z Pass. They are then mailed a bill from the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) for the toll.

If the rollout goes well on Route 202 the rest of the DRJTBC's toll bridges will add the option on Jan. 24. The are:

• Trenton-Morrisville on Route 1
• The Route 78 bridge
• The Easton-Phillipsburg on Route 22
• The Portland-Columbia Bridge on Routes 611, 46, and 94
• The Delaware Water Gap bridge on Route 80
• The Milford-Montague on Route 206.

Donnelly said it's mostly a software adjustment and added signage to add Toll by Plate.

The toll remains at $3 for cash while E-Z Pass users get a discounted toll of $1.50.

Toll collection not a good career choice

Toll by Plate bills not paid are subject to a $5 late fee. If a third needs to be send the fee is waived and a $30 administration fee added.

Toll collectors will remain in place at the crossings for now, except at the Scudder Falls Bridge, according to DRJTBC spokesman Joe Donnelly. The commission currently has 375 toll collectors down from 400. Some have left through attrition while others are being trained for new positions and reassigned.

"We're moving toward cashless toll collections at every toll bridge that we have," Donnelly told New Jersey 101.5. "Our numbers are so high for E-Z Pass and cash payments are a rare quantity. Essentially one out of every ten transactions ends up being cash."

Eventually, all the DRJTBC toll bridges will be cashless. Donnelly expects the three lowest volume bridges, New Hope-Lambertville, Portland-Columbia, and Milford-Montague, to be the first to stop accepting cash payments in June. The remaining six bridges would go cashless by January 2025.

The toll plazas will eventually be replaced by gantries that will read E-Z Pass transponders and photograph license plates with one a year through 2023.

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