HARRISBURG, Pa. - Tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will jump 42 percent starting Aug. 1.
The increase totals 5.3 cents a mile for commercial vehicles and 1.8 cents a mile for passenger cars.
That means a 40,000-pound motorcoach (Class 5) traveling from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia will pay a toll of $51.57, up from today's toll of $36.35 for the 295-mile trip. The 351-mile trip from the Ohio border to Philadelphia will cost the operator of a 48,000-pound (Class 6)coach $70.20, up from today's $51.65.
One Pennsylvania newspaper reported that while the commission received more than 100 phone calls and e-mails regarding the proposed increase, only James Runk, president of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, showed up late last month to protest the hike in person at a meeting of the turnpike commission.
Runk was quoted as telling the commission that the toll hike "could drive some small-business carriers out of business." He asked the commission to phase the increase in over a period of several years, similar to how the Ohio Turnpike managed its last toll increase to "soften the blow."
But Commission Chairman Mitchell Rubin told a wire service that his way of softening the blow was to show turnpike users "that they're getting something in return for their dollar."
The five-member Turnpike Commission reportedly delayed the increase until August to give businesses a chance to build the higher fees into their cost structure.
When the new tolls go into effect it will mark the first increase in 13 years. The turnpike commission pointed out that the hike matches the inflation rate since the last increase in 1991, when they were increased 30 percent.
The toll boost will generate more than $100 million annually to be used exclusively to rebuild or replace 600 of the turnpike's 815 bridges over the next 10 years, as well as to reconstruct many sections of the roadway. It costs between $8 million and $10 million to completely rebuild a mile of the 64-year-old, 530-mile turnpike. Currently, the turnpike commission generates roughly $400 million annually from tolls and another $10 million from concessions.
"Not one penny of the increase will go toward new administration costs or increased bureaucracy," said Turnpike CEO Joseph Brimmeier.
Although there are eight different toll categories for commercial vehicles, the average increase will be 5.3 cents per mile. Commercial traffic makes up about 43 percent of the 180 million vehicles that use the turnpike each year.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike has two routes, a north-south corridor, stretching from Philadelphia to Scranton (I-476), and an east-west leg from Philadelphia to the Ohio state line (I-76).