Coronavirus In Pennsylvania: Turnpike Commission Bracing For Massive Drop In Toll Revenue
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It appears Pennsylvanians have been listening to Governor Tom Wolf's stay-at-home order.
All you have to do is take a look at the traffic -- or lack of it -- on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
That is bad news for an agency already facing billions of dollars in debt.
Let's break down the numbers for March using 2019 as a comparison.
For Class 1 passenger vehicles during the early stages of the coronavirus stay-at-home order, the number of Turnpike users was 9.5 million.
There were 14.8 million users on the Turnpike in March 2020.
Looking at the dollars for those same-passenger vehicles, the Turnpike collected $61.3 million in tolls in 2019.
This year, the number sank to $37.5 million – a decline of nearly 39 percent year-over-year and $23.85 million the PA Turnpike did not collect.
If you assume the numbers aren't as bad for the heavier commercial traffic, like tractor-trailers, you are right. But they aren't making up for the shortfall.
For those commercial big rigs, there were a little more than 2.5 million Class 2-9 vehicles in March 2019.
This year, the number dropped to 2.4 million.
As for revenue dollars, the amount collected by the Turnpike dropped from $51.7 million a year ago to $48.95 million this year.
The 5.4 percent dip in volume led to a reduction of $2.8 million in tolls.
The numbers are very much in line with what the Pennsylvania Turnpike commission expected to see.
"The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a very commuter-heavy toll road system," said Carl Defabo, spokesperson for the PA Turnpike Commission. "I would say that more than half of our revenue derives from those commuters."
The Turnpike Commission will meet on Wednesday via teleconference. Those revenue shortfalls will certainly be part of the discussion.
Defabo says, "The commission is going to have a very thorough discussion about what this traffic and revenue drop has had -- and what an effect it has had and how we will move ahead going forward."
The numbers for April will not be released for a couple of weeks.
Don't be surprised to see additional drops in traffic volume and toll revenue as the stay-at-home order will be in place for the entire month of April.
