The move was announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The prime minister told reporters that “toll-based highways are a luxury product” and described tolls as “a barrier to mobility.”
Connectivity, savings, road safety
He said his government was moving to make highways “available to all” in order “to maximise connectivity.”
Morawiecki said the abolition of highway tolls would also mean “savings for drivers, a boost for the environment, better road safety and improved driving conditions.”
The prime minister said that the “toll-free highways bill” was “a concrete policy proposal" by his ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, designed “to support sustainable development in Poland.”
Poland to scrap tolls on state-operated highways from July 1
Meanwhile, Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk announced that the government was working to scrap tolls on state-operated highways from July 1, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Adamczyk said “the scrapping of tolls will boost traffic on highways and also make alternative, parallel roads safer.”
The infrastructure minister warned that “traffic congestion on roads that run parallel to highways is a potential danger and increases the risk of road accidents.”
He declared that “the government aims to make highways the main transport corridor, both for passenger cars and trucks.”
Tolls on privately-operated highways to be abolished ‘within a year’
Meanwhile, the government also seeks to abolish tolls on privately-operated highways “within a year and hopefully sooner,” Adamczyk told reporters.
The plan to abolish highway tolls was first announced by Polish conservative leader Jarosław Kaczyński on Saturday.
It is one of his governing party’s three key pledges ahead of parliamentary elections in the autumn, the IAR news agency reported.
The other two, designed to kick in next year, are raising the “Family 500+” child benefit by PLN 300 (EUR 65) to PLN 800 (EUR 180) and making medicines free for children up to the age of 18 and for senior citizens aged over 65, according to officials.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, rmf24.pl