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No more toll booths: Orange County toll roads going cash free in 2014
The view of toll booths on the 73 toll road in Orange County. The Catalina View booths are among the cash collection stops to be closed as the Toll Road Agencies transition to an all electronic fee collection system by June 2014. (Photo courtesy: Transportation Corridor Agencies)
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Transportation Corridor Agencies
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Cash collection toll booths, like this one on Highway 261 in Orange County, will be eliminated in 2014 when the Transportation Corridor Agencies moves to a cashless system.
(Photo courtesy: Transportation Corridor Agencies/Highway 261, Spring 2009)
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Stephen Francis
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No more toll booths: Orange County toll roads going cash free in 2014
The toll booths are going away in Orange County early next year.
The Transportation Corridor Agencies is moving to an all electronic collection system for its 51 miles of toll roads in Orange County by June 2014.
"More than 80 percent of the county's toll road users have FasTrak transponders and don't need to do anything," TCA spokeswoman Lisa Telles said.
But she said the nearly 20 percent of people now using cash will need to either sign up for FasTrak or a new ExpressAccount before June 2014.
"What we found is some people said 'I don't drive on the toll road very often and I don't like to have to prepay my toll into an account.' So these ExpressAccounts don't require people to prepay money into an account," said Telles.
She said one of the new ExpressAccount features provides direct credit card billing.
"You just give us your license plate, your basic information and a credit card and the day your drive on the toll road, that night your credit card will be charged directly," said Telles.
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But she said unlike the FasTrak transponder system, the ExpressAccount won't be accepted on toll roads outside of Orange County.
Telles said the all electronic tolling is expected to save the TCA $13.3 million in the first five years.
She said the 80 full and part-time toll booth attendants now working in Orange County are employed by a company that manages about 700 parking facilities in Southern California and are expected to be reassigned to other jobs.
Telles said as part of the move to the cashless system, the existing the toll plazas on the 73, 241, and 261 toll roads will be barricaded.
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