Motorways, the government is working on a plan to make tolls homogeneous: here’s how

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The major maneuvers on the motorway front are along two lines: the toll reform and the difficult issue of the reorganization of motorway concessions. The news had arrived in recent weeks when a mini-reform of motorway tariffs was announced by Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Edoardo Rixi.

The tolls

Now it is the infrastructure annex to the Def that puts in black and white that the ministry led by Salvini is working on «an organic reform, which can allow fair economic equalization within the entire motorway network and allow the necessary investments, to bring back to full functional efficiency of the infrastructures in certain times, with a mandatory definition of the risks and the subjects who must bear them, in full compliance with the opening of the market and competition”. And therefore first of all the homogeneity of tolls currently entrusted to a Babel of very different prices, even within the same area. «The rules will change and the government’s idea is to move towards a single national tariff, therefore having similar kilometer tolls for users and weighted for operators. This will allow us to better optimize traffic flows on the various arteries”, said Deputy Minister Edoardo Rixi in an interview with Secolo XIX. He is the one who has the heavy reform dossier on the table which should however include two sets of regulations, one for concessions and the other for tolls. The government’s hypothesis is to introduce “median” cost mechanisms and, according to rumours, to also have network inefficiencies such as construction sites, traffic, accident levels and the absence of the third lane weigh on the tolls. For managers, however, the key word is investments: the tariffs, they say, are also differentiated based on the resources put in place to create and maintain them.

The concessions

The most ambitious objective, however, concerns the reorganization, also in a Pnrr key, of the entire concession mechanism with a “reorganization at a regulatory level” but above all looking at “strengthening the role of grantor and the governance tools of the public sector” . To do so, however, the road is obligatory and will not necessarily be able to enter into existing concessions straight away. However, it happens that some are soon to expire: these are none other than the Brescia-Padua and the Brenner motorway. The first, say well-informed sources, is tempting the Veneto Region which would aim to build a single large operator of the North East: a box into which the subsidiary Autostrade Alto Adriatico will also flow.
The premises for this and other maneuvers would, according to this hypothesis, have already been laid with the birth of Autostrade dello Stato spa, the Mef’s shareholder. But let’s take a step aside.

The investment node

The other issue that needs to be addressed (and resolved) is maintenance and investments on the network. This is the beauty of 5,886 km of network managed by 25 dealers, large and small. On these chapters, says the Def, an expenditure of 38.338 billion is expected “of which 15.402 are covered in the current financial plans, while 22.935 billion euros must be found in subsequent conventional updates”. A figure that is given downwards and which could therefore be increased “in consideration of the inflationary dynamics and the interventions made necessary by the updating of technical and safety standards”. The dossier is very hot and is at the center of many restructuring hypotheses, some even reckless. One of the thorniest questions goes like this: where to recover the 23 billion needed to get the network back on track and develop it. Some people put forward the hypothesis of toll reform, where the State would then play a heavier role, perhaps even – but this remains to be seen – in the collection of tariffs.

The newco Autostrade dello Stato

But let’s go back to the new company and the intricate puzzle that revolves around the management of highways. That there is movement on this front was clearly demonstrated by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday 9 April, where almost surprisingly the executive launched the creation of Autostrade dello Stato spa, an in-house company with entire public capital which for now will incorporate the motorways paid by Anas, as well as Rome-Fiumicino. Vito Cozzoli (CEO), Carlo Vachi and Gioia Gorgerino will sit on the board of directors. And which – as stated in the draft law – will last until 2100. The corporate object is «the performance of management activities and, where required by law, of construction of state highways under concession”. But it will also be able to set up state highway management companies and acquire shares in the same companies. It is therefore not surprising that some observers read these lines as the prelude to a more far-reaching change of direction. Perhaps even the beginning of a nationalization of Italian motorways. But obviously the game is still to be played on this.