Expressway toll discounts begin, traffic increases 52%+

TOKYO, March 28 Kyodo - Traffic increased significantly on expressways in Japan on Saturday as two-year toll discounts on weekends and national holidays started as part of stimulus
measures to buoy the sluggish economy.

Traffic grew 52 percent from year-earlier levels on the Tokai Ring Expressway
in Gifu Prefecture, 48 percent on the Banetsu Expressway in Fukushima
Prefecture and 46 percent on the Tohoku Expressway in the Fukushima-Tochigi
prefectural border, according to expressway operators.
The uniform toll of 1,000 yen for an unlimited distance on weekends and
holidays came into effect for passenger cars and motorcycles equipped with
electronic toll collection devices traveling on expressways outside the Tokyo
and Osaka metropolitan areas, which are subject to separate tolls.
''With the discount rate, I can travel much more cheaply than using the
'shinkansen' bullet train service,'' Minoru Okita, a 58-year-old Hiroshima
company employee, said at a rest area on the Meishin Expressway in Kusatsu,
Shiga Prefecture, on his way to Tokyo to see his daughter.
Expressway companies have mobilized extra traffic controllers at service areas
in anticipation of heavy traffic this weekend. On the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge
Expressway in western Japan where a uniform discount toll was introduced on
March 20, traffic doubled.
Until April 26, those passing through expressways in the metropolitan regions
will be required to pay the uniform toll twice in addition to tolls for
metropolitan areas.
A driver traveling from Fukushima Nishi on the Tohoku Expressway in
northeastern Japan to Hamamatsu on the Tomei Expressway in central Japan via
the Tokyo metropolitan expressway will pay 3,950 yen, compared with the usual
total of 11,850 yen.
After the double levy is eliminated in late April, the sum will decline to
2,950 yen.
''The discount helps me a lot,'' Kenji Murata, 62, a self-employed man in
Utsunomiya, said at a rest area in Ebina, Kanagawa Prefecture, on the Tomei
Expressway where the parking lot was filled by 9 a.m. and restaurants were
crowded with travelers.
''Given the lower rate, I would like to drive to places in the Kansai region
such as Nara and Kyoto,'' said Murata, who was on his way to a spa in Shizuoka
Prefecture.
A supplementary budget for fiscal 2008 ending this month has set aside 500
billion yen to cover losses in toll income as a result of the discounts for
expressway toll collection companies over the two years.
==Kyodo
2009-03-28 22:32:03