PA Turnpike Makes Cashless Tolls Permanent, Laying Off Hundreds

HARRISBURG, PA — A cashless system instituted in March on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to minimize the spread of the coronavirus will become permanent as 500 employees will be laid off this month, officials announced Tuesday.

The layoffs, which include mostly toll collectors and fare-collection personnel, means there will be no return to cash collections on the PA Turnpike system following the coronavirus closures.

Customers will move through the lanes at posted speeds without stopping. Tolls will be assessed via E-ZPass, or a PA Turnpike TOLL BY PLATE invoice will be sent in the mail.

“I deeply regret that we have reached this point, but the world has been irrevocably changed by the global pandemic,” said Turnpike Commission CEO Mark P. Compton said in a news release. “This pandemic had a much greater impact than anyone could have foreseen. The PA Turnpike has not been spared from COVID-19.”

The Turnpike had already announced plans to go cashless by the end of 2021 but the financial impacts of coronavirus has escalated that timeline.

The pandemic has caused Turnpike traffic to plummet by almost 50 percent since March compared to the previous year. Toll revenues dropped by more than $100 million for the fiscal year ended May 31.

The contractual layoff process is expected to begin this week, with the first employee separations occurring on or after June. 18.