A few days before the major holiday departures, franceinfo publishes a ranking of the motorways and sections that have increased the most in 2023.
The holidays are fast approaching, and with them the waves of departures by car to cross France. But this year, the note of the journeys promises to be much saltier than last summer. Unless they have subscribed to subscriptions which entitle them to special reductions, motorists will have to pay a high price.
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In a context of inflation, motorway tolls in fact increased sharply on 1 February, the traditional date for the updating of price lists. The increase is on average 4.75% compared to 2022, according to the figures communicated by the State. But is this overall figure representative of all motorways?
Up to 10.5% increase
In partnership with the magazine “Complément d’Enquête”, Franceinfo has reviewed the prices charged on the major axes of the French motorway network. A total of 3,128 road sections were analyzed. A work carried out from data compiled by the eco-autoroute.fr site, as well as from the collection of hundreds of tariffs in the brochures of concessionary companies.
Behind the national averages, all motorways are not housed at the same rate. Thus, for users of the A48, on the Lyon-Grenoble axis, the bill has increased by 10.5% over one year. On average, it is now necessary to pay 1.17 euros to travel 10 kilometers, compared to 1.06 euros in 2022. Asked by franceinfo about this sharp increase, the company Area, manager of the A48, recalls that in France the motorways are financed on the principle of “user pays”. “Construction and maintenance costs are passed on to the toll price”, specifies the company. In the case of the A48, Area highlights major development work that has just been finalized on the A480, the free extension of the A48 on the Grenoble ring road.
The A65, which connects Langon (Gironde) to Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), is also distinguished by a rise much higher than the average. The price to pay to travel 10 kilometers there jumped from 1.39 to 1.54 euros between 2022 and 2023, according to our calculations, i.e. an increase of 10.4%.
Franceinfo has also established a list of the 100 motorway sections that have increased the most over the past year. This ranking highlights the so-called “recent” motorways, which have been open since the beginning of the 2000s. Fourteen of the first 15 places in this ranking are thus occupied by sections of the A65, commissioned in 2010.
In this ranking of journeys whose price has increased the most in one year, the A28, the part of which connecting Alençon (Orne) to Rouen (Seine-Maritime) was opened in 2005, is also very well represented. Just like the A63, the part of which crosses the Landes department is an old national road redeveloped into a motorway in 2013.
Why such price increases, well above the national average? These motorways are in fact governed by special contracts, the tariff clauses of which allow higher increases than for the major historic motorways built in the 20th century. Questioned by franceinfo, the Directorate General for Infrastructure, Transport and Mobility (DGITM) recognizes tariffs “higher” And “more dynamic” on these new highways.
This administration, under the supervision of the Ministry of Ecology, is in charge of the concession motorway network. It is she who checks each year the tariff revisions proposed by the motorway companies. It is also the service which calculated the average increase of 4.75% in 2023 communicated by the State. An indicator which is in reality only based on the rates charged on the old motorway network, which totals more than 90% of the national network. Recent network increases, often larger, are not taken into account.
The price reduction of the Duplex A86
For the DGITM, the tariff clauses that are more favorable to the concession companies of recent networks are mainly explained by less dense traffic on these new motorways. “The tariffs on the recent network are on average higher, on the one hand because they concentrate less traffic, and on the other hand because construction costs are increasing on projects which must now meet environmental and safety requirements”explains the administration to franceinfo.
But all the concession companies of the recent network do not necessarily have recourse to the maximum tariffs to which they can claim. Some have even chosen to lower some of their prices between 2022 and 2023. This is the case for the Duplex A86, the most expensive motorway in France. Traveling through this 10 km Ile-de-France tunnel between Vélizy (Yvelines) and Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine), on weekdays, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., now costs 10.9 euros, compared to 11.6 euros in 2022 .