The prices of the main motorway networks should increase by 2% on average from February 1, 2022, after an increase of 0.44% in early 2021, according to figures from the Ministry of Transport consulted Thursday by AFP. The ASF network should increase its tariffs by 2.19% and APRR by 2.05%, according to these figures confirmed to AFP by the motorway companies, and which must be presented friday the Road Network Users Committee.
The government has yet to formally approve these new tariffs. The very strict contracts binding the motorway companies to the State provide for an automatic increase in toll prices every year on February 1, depending in particular on inflation and projects undertaken on the network.
Inflation is accelerating
The rising consumer prices has been accelerating in France since the summer: inflation was only 1.2% over one year in July, then 1.9% in August and 2.8% in November. It is driven by an acceleration in the prices of energy, manufactured products and to a lesser extent services, according to INSEE.
“The toll prices on February 1, 2022 will not increase more than inflation”, underlined a source close to the dealers. At the beginning of 2019, in the midst of a challenge to the yellow vests, the government asked for and obtained after “intense discussions” with the motorway companies, a 30% reduction in prices for regular drivers, failing a reduction for all. The government had ruled out the idea of freeze toll prices, as the former Minister of Ecology Ségolène Royal had decided in 2015, because it would have had to be caught up later.