Transport Quebec pocketed an $11.3 million profit last year from operating the Highway 25 toll bridge that links Laval to Montreal.
The annual report for the public-private partnership that operates the bridge reported more than 15 million crossings for its 2013-2014 fiscal year.
The twelve-month rolling average daily traffic increased steadily throughout that period, rising from 36,863 in June 2013 to 41,244 in May 2014—and up nearly 30 per cent from the June 2012 figure of 30,600. The rolling average smoothes out seasonal shifts, since fewer Laval residents use their cars to commute during winter months.
Transport Quebec’s cash take in 2014 was up 10.8 per cent from the $10.2 million that it netted in 2013. The figure doesn’t include the profits earned by the provincial government’s private partners, Ontario firms Concession A25 and Miller Maintenance, which built the bridge and have operated and maintained it since it opened in 2011.
Some 84 per cent of bridge users are registered customers who use an electronic transponder to pay their tolls automatically. The number of transponder users stood at 205,342 in May 2014, up 12.8 per cent from a year earlier. The bridge authority bills commuters who don’t have a transponder by using a video system that records their license plate numbers, tacking an extra $3.09 service charge on top of the toll for each crossing without a transponder.
