Madrid scraps plan for toll roads

28 Oct, 2012

A plan to introduce tolls on motorways around Madrid has now been scrapped.

The suggestion was first introduced by the then head of the Madrid government, Esperanza Aguirre, to help with the cost of maintaining the roads around the capital.

Aguirre resigned from her post in September, citing health issues, and now the central government has shelved the plan because of what it claims is the cost of introducing and administering the system on regional roads.

However the government announced plans at the beginning of October to build two more toll motorways, from Madrid to Santo Tomé del Puerto in Segovia and from Toledo to Córdoba.

The projects come at a time when tolls on the motorways are falling because of the decrease in road traffic in the present economic crisis.