CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill remains alive in the House of Delegates that would force the state Parkways Authority to have credit and debit card options available at the Turnpike’s toll plazas by July 1, 2021. A House committee defeated a proposed amendment Wednesday to push the install back to 2025.
House Bill 4083 was before the House Technology and Infrastructure Committee. The committee’s lawyer proposed changing the bill after talking with representatives of the West Virginia Parkways Authority but Delegate Daniel Linville and other delegates rejected pushing back the credit and debate options further than the July 2021 date.
“I would urge you to move on this quickly,” Linville told Parkways Authority General Manager Greg Barr.
Barr told the committee the Parkways Authority is six months into a three-year process to change its entire tolling system and there are plans to integrate credit and debit options as part of the changeover. He expressed concern that piecemeal changes could create delays at the toll plazas.
“I know when use a card it takes 15 or 20 seconds (to process),” Barr said. “Then sometimes the card doesn’t read and you need a different card.”
Barr said the authority’s consultant on the tolling system replacement job said the credit and tolling options could be added sooner but it wouldn’t able to link to the system until the new system is in place.
“So we’d have to manually reconcile that separate from the toll system,” Barr said.
His concerns didn’t find much sympathy among committee members. Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, said the current system is inconvenient without the credit and debit options. He said it creates issues for travelers without cash when it shouldn’t be an issue.
“It’s those kinds of panics that we shouldn’t be providing to people who want to travel through West Virginia for a variety of reasons,” Rowe said.
One proposal is to have one lane at each toll plaza dedicated to credit or debit payments. Barr said that could create wrecks at the toll plazas.
“People are weaving in and out. All cars are lining up in one lane. Trucks are lining up in another. I’ll tell you the climbing lanes and the mountains and the hills–it creates problems,” Barr said.
Linville said he believes the new options would positively affect revenues.
“It would perhaps even speed things up,” Linville said. “I would imagine making change and those sorts of things would actually even take longer.”
A large majority of Turnpike travelers are from outside of West Virginia and use cash. Those travelers who don’t have it are given written out IOUs and are billed later.
The Parkways Authority opened more than 100,000 new accounts last year as part of the $24 three-year unlimited use EZPass program. Those motorists have transponders and only stop briefly at the toll plazas.
The House committee rejected the proposed significant changes to the original bill in a voice vote Wednesday. The bill now heads to the House Government Organization Committee.