The cost of tolls on Portugal’s formerly free SCUT roads has led to the closing down of 3,000 transport companies according to the Carriers Association, which fears the situation may worsen.
The implementation of tolls on the former free roads includes the Algarve’s Via do Infante/A22 motorway where high toll fees deter many trade and private drivers from using the east-west route.
In the north of the country there are three motorways that used to be free but tolls were imposed by the coalition government which signed PPP contracts that are so taxpayer-adverse that they defy polite description.
Toll charges have enriched Infraestruturas de Portugal, formerly Estradas de Portugal, by €422 million just from the transport company sector.
"Three thousand transport companies have closed in the last three years, the fault of tolls on SCUT roads," says the president of the National Association of Road Goods Public Transport (ANTRAM), Gustavo Duarte, who said "the price of fuel, taxes and red tape," had not helped the dire situation for the transport sector.
Duarte fears that the number of bankruptcies may increase if no measures are taken by the government.
The situation in the Algarve is worsened by the lack of a suitable alternative to the motorway and the fact that over ¾ of the costs of the Via do Infante were paid for by the EC as a regional development grant.
