After a four-year rate freeze during the pandemic, the 407ETR will raise its fees again starting next month.
Motorists looking to avoid Toronto's congested traffic via toll routes will now pay an extra 11 cents per kilometer, a fee that can add up quickly when driving long distances or as part of a daily commute.
407 ETR Concession Company Limited (most of the route from Burlington to Pickering) assured the public in a press release that for most individual customers, the price increase would only be "less than $5 per month".
As always, the date and time of use will determine the toll amount, as will the direction of travel, the relevant highway section, and the weight of the vehicles using the highway.
The cost for light vehicles will now be as high as 71.26 cents per kilometer (eastbound from Highway 427 and Highway 404 between 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.), while the minimum fee will be 30.22 cents per kilometer (12 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays after 7 p.m., plus 12 a.m. to 11 a.m. on weekends and after 7 p.m. on all sections of the road).
The new settlement structure will come into effect on February 1, 2024, as more people return to the office, thus getting back on the road after the pandemic is over.
Of course, drivers are already complaining about the change, calling it "outrageously expensive," another example of Ontario's greedy inflation.
One person on X complained that the fees they receive each month for using the avenue add up to more than their car payments and insurance bills combined.
However, there is a way to cross Highway 407 for free, as a local couple proved a few years ago: just have a baby on the side of the road (free 1-year 407 usage fee).
The 151-kilometre highway spans the Greater Toronto Area, running in two sections from Burlington in the southwest to Clarington in the northeast.
The first section, 108 kilometers long and officially known as 407 ETR, is owned by a private consortium that includes Spanish transport giant Ferrovial as well as subsidiaries indirectly through the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The provincial government owns a smaller second parcel, Highway 407.
According to reports, Ontario Provincial Highway 407 (English: Ontario Highway 407) is an east-west 400 series toll highway in southern Ontario, Canada, with a total length of 151.4 kilometers (94.1 miles), the west end in Burlington and the intersection of Highway 403 and Queen Queen Elizabeth Road, and the east end in Clarrington with Highway 35 and 115. The section of the highway between Burlington and Brock Road at the western end of the road is owned by the privately owned 407 ETR Concession Company Limited, while the section east of Brock Road is owned by the Ontario government.
It is reported that at that time, this move was to facilitate motorists to bypass the Greater Toronto Area section of Highway 401 (that is, the busiest section of the highway), and the Ontario government began to plan Highway 407 as a northern detour of Highway 401 in the 1950s.
However, in the years that followed, the authorities focused on the widening of Highway 401, so it was not until 1987 that the Highway 407 project commenced. Highway 407 was privatized in 1998 by the provincial government in the early 1990s as a toll road, leaving the 407 Rapid Toll Road not part of the provincial government's road network.