New York Tolls Go Cashless Soon

If you aren't an EZ Pass holder and you use the New York State Thruway, you may want to get your tag soon. The Thruway will be totally cash-less by the fall. Here are the details. My fiance's family lives in Buffalo and we travel there a lot. We have been EZ Pass holders for years. At first, it was for convenience and now I am just happy that we have had them for so long and don't have to change over. On the last trip out to Western New York last week, we noticed that all of the stanchions were completed for the cash-less tolls. Now we know when the cash-less tolls will begin.

According to News 10 ABC, the change over from toll booths to cash-less EZ Pass scans will happen with the flip of a switch. The New York State Thruway Authority Operations Deputy Director says that there will be a thirty-day test run of the network and the equipment to make sure it is all running properly.

There are a total of seventy gantries that run the entire New York State Thruway. They are equipped with lights, monitors, motion sensors, and cameras. They are set up in fifty-eight locations near entry and exit points across the Thruway.

Right now seventy-five percent of Thruway drivers use EZ Pass. There will be a state-wide campaign to encourage more drivers to get the EZ Pass. If you do not have one, you will be mailed a collections letter and have to pay or face fines.

The twelve hundred toll operators across the state were offered job retraining, college incentives, and transfers to other departments since the project launched in 2018. This EZ Pass project cost three hundred fifty-five million dollars. Authorities say that the toll amounts will not change from the current fees.