Tolls Going Up On Delaware River Bridges Sunday

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Toll increases on bridges over the Delaware River are set to increase this weekend. Tolls will go up for the Scudder Falls, Trenton-Morrisville and New Hope-Lambertville bridges, among others.

The most frequently paid toll — passenger vehicles with E-ZPass — will go up 25 cents to $1.25 on April 11. The cash toll for a passenger vehicle will jump to $3. In 2024, the E-ZPass toll will jump again, to $1.50.

A full list of toll changes for all types of vehicles can be found on the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission's website.

The commission said the increases are needed to offset revenue declines due to COVID-19. They will be the first system-wide increases in 10 years and will charge people who pay cash more than those with E-ZPass.

The commission had announced the proposed increases on Feb. 1, followed by a 26-day public comment period that let drivers and residents weigh in on the plan at three virtual hearings, by phone, by mail or online.

The commission said increasing the tolls will help it pay off financial obligations, fund improvement projects throughout its Pennsylvania-New Jersey service area and establish a two-tier pricing structure that assigns higher tolls to cash transactions than to people with E-ZPass.

The changes also eliminate an off-peak E-ZPass discount for tractor-trailers and phases in the elimination of the agency's frequency-based E-ZPass commuter discount by 2024. The E-ZPass commuter discount will be reduced to 20 percent from the current 40-percent discount starting May 1.

The commission already has been charging $1.25 at Scudder Falls Bridge since July 14, 2019.

In 2019, just over 75 percent of toll transactions at the commission's eight bridges were handled by E-ZPass. In 2020, that number increased to nearly 80 percent, but that number was skewed by "toll by mail" billing that happened between late March and early May due to COVID-19.

The bridges impacted by the change are:

• Milford-Montague (Route 206)
• Delaware Water Gap (I-80)
• Portland-Columbia (Routes 611, 46 and 94)
• Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22)
• I-78, New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202)
• Scudder Falls (I-295)
• Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1)

With reporting by Doug Gross of Patch