Truck Toll Discounts to End Early on Texas Highway

Discounts for truckers on a well-known Texas toll road, State Highway 130, are ending Dec. 1, earlier than planned.

Since April, trucks have been paying the same $6.49 toll as cars to run the privately managed section of Highway 130 that stretches from Mustang Ridge just south of Austin to Sequin just east of San Antonio.

Without the discount, the toll for a 5-axle truck with a TexTag it will be $25.89 on that stretch of the road, which was privately developed and operated.

In a bid to get trucks off heavily congested Interstate 35 and onto the less traveled Highway 130, the state said in April it would underwrite the discount program with $4 million.

“That’s what was allocated, but we’ve reached that amount,” said Mark Cross, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.

State officials estimated the $4 million would cover about a year’s worth of payments to the private concession that operates the toll road. However, more truckers than expected took advantage of the discount, Cross said.

The state and the toll road operators have tried before to get more traffic on the toll road. In late 2012, when the  road opened, it drew national attention because the speed limit was set at 85 mph — then the highest in the country — in the hope of attracting more users.

However, the road has struggled to draw the traffic volumes that would help pay its debts and return a healthy profit to the private investors.

In October, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded about $1.1 billion of debt for the toll road, saying “the project will have insufficient cash to meet its debt service payments due in June.”