PP calls for the Costa del Sol toll road to be free for commuters and students

Patricia Navarro of the Partido Popular says that the AP-7 toll should also be lifted for those who using the road for healthcare reasons

E. Press

Friday, 7 June 2024, 13:10

The provincial president of the PP political party in Malaga, Patricia Navarro, has urged the government to remove tolls on the AP-7 motorway between Malaga and Algeciras, which passes through Fuengirola, Marbella, and Estepona. Speaking on Thursday, she proposed making the road free for students, commuters and individuals travelling to health centres for medical reasons.

According to the PP, Navarro is reviving the proposal made by the director general of the DGT (Spain's Directorate-General for Traffic) in 2022 and 2023, so that citizens do not have to face the most expensive toll in Spain per built kilometre, which "has an abusive price that condemns workers, students, and families on the Costa del Sol to suffer traffic jams on the congested A-7 because the government of Pedro Sánchez also punishes us without a coastal train".

She pointed out that it was the PSOE government, with Josep Borrell as minister, which in 1996 set the conditions for the Costa del Sol motorway, which raises the toll by 50% in high season, between the beginning of June and the end of September.

This means that in summer, the cost can exceed 576 euros per month for those who use this motorway, which is the backbone of the Costa del Sol, on a daily basis. Last weekend, the president of PP in Malaga proposed subsidies for young people, in line with those applied by the regional ministry through the metropolitan transport consortium or the mobility card of Marbella town hall.

However, Navarro stressed that it is necessary to go further, and proposed that the government remove the toll for certain groups, such as commuters who have to use the motorway to get to and from work, including transport workers; students and teachers who use it to go to school, as well as drivers who travel to hospitals, outpatient clinics and medical centres.

"This proposal was launched by the director general of the DGT when the government wanted to introduce tolls on all motorways and dual carriageways and we think it is fair to improve mobility on the Costa del Sol, to relieve so much traffic on the A7 while we do not have a strong public transport network, such as a train to Marbella, Estepona and Algeciras," Navarro stressed.

She added that: "The Sánchez government has been punishing Andalucía and Malaga, the most dynamic and fastest-growing region in Spain, for six years, without investment, without projects and with a road network that is becoming a bottleneck without the government doing anything about it. This must come to an end and this involves investment in transport, but also a broad reduction in this unfair and abusive toll that is a constant injustice compared with other areas of the country."

To this point, she recalled that in other Spanish regions, the government is subsidising or making motorways free of charge, as is the case in Galicia, which has a 50% subsidy on journeys; or as will soon happen in Alicante, where the minister of transport and sustainable mobility, Óscar Puente, announced that he is considering lifting the toll on a 33.2-kilometre stretch to relieve congestion on the A-70.

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